Ibrahim Doundou Chefou is a Nigerien militant and a commander in the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara. Code named "Naylor Road" by the United States.
Chefou is believed to have the led the ambush of a convoy of U.S. and Nigerien troops in October 2017 that left four American and five Nigerien soldiers dead. Formerly a Fulani herder in the Niger-Mali border region, he initially took up arms to battle Tuareg cattle thieves. [1] [2] According to The New York Times , U.S. troops were attempting to locate Chefou in October 2017 when at least fifty militants purportedly led by him attacked them near the village of Tongo Tongo in southwestern Niger. [3]
Chefou is believed by African officials to be one of the main propagators of unrest in the Sahel region. Niger's defense minister labeled him a "terrorist" and a "bandit". [4]
Operation Juniper Shield, formerly known as Operation Enduring Freedom – Trans Sahara (OEF-TS), is the military operation conducted by the United States and partner nations in the Saharan and Sahel regions of Africa, consisting of counterterrorism efforts and policing of arms and drug trafficking across central Africa. It is part of the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). The other OEF mission in Africa is Operation Enduring Freedom – Horn of Africa (OEF-HOA).
The insurgency in the Maghreb refers to the Islamist insurgency in the Maghreb region of North Africa that followed on from the end of the Algerian Civil War in 2002 to the present day. The Algerian militant group Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) allied itself with al-Qaeda to eventually become al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). The Algerian and other Maghreb governments fighting the militants have worked with the United States and the United Kingdom since 2007, when Operation Enduring Freedom – Trans Sahara began. While the 2011 Arab Spring affected support for the insurgency, it also presented military opportunities for the jihadists. In 2012, AQIM and Islamist allies captured the northern half of Mali, until being fought back less than a year later following a French-led foreign intervention, which was succeeded by the Sahel-wide Operation Barkhane. In Libya, the ISIL/ISIS/IS/Daesh was able to control some limited territory during the Second Libyan Civil War, amid allegations of local collaboration between the rival AQIM and ISIL.
The Boko Haram insurgency began in July 2009, when the militant Islamist and jihadist rebel group Boko Haram started an armed rebellion against the government of Nigeria. The conflict is taking place within the context of long-standing issues of religious violence between Nigeria's Muslim and Christian communities, and the insurgents' ultimate aim is to establish an Islamic state in the region.
Timeline of the Boko Haram insurgency is the chronology of the Boko Haram insurgency, an ongoing armed conflict between Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram and the Nigerian government. Boko Haram have carried out many attacks against the military, police and civilians since 2009, mostly in Nigeria. The low-intensity conflict is centred on Borno State. It peaked in the mid 2010s, when Boko Haram extended their insurgency into Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
Operation Barkhane is an ongoing anti-insurgent operation that started on 1 August 2014, and is led by the French military against Islamist groups in Africa's Sahel region. It consists of a roughly 3,000-strong French force, which is permanently headquartered in N’Djamena, the capital of Chad. The operation is led in co-operation with four countries, all of which are former French colonies that span the Sahel: Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania and Niger. Mali was formerly a part of the operation. The countries are collectively referred to as the "G5 Sahel". The operation is named after a crescent-shaped dune type that is common in the Sahara desert.
Tongo Tongo is a village in the rural commune (municipality) of Tondikiwindi, Ouallam Department, Tillabéri Region in southwestern Niger, 174 km north of the nation's capital Niamey and 28 km south of the border with Mali. The village has about 160-170 huts/dwellings, irregularly clustered. There are no roads, only trails that connect to nearby villages such as Siwili, Firo, Sabara Bangou, Sinka Koira, Gollo, Gouré Tonndi, Kokorobé Koukou, and Zerma Daré.
The Tongo Tongo ambush or the Niger ambush occurred on 4 October 2017, when armed militants from the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) attacked Nigerien and US soldiers outside the village of Tongo Tongo, Niger, while they were returning to base after a stop in the village. During the ambush, four Nigeriens, four US soldiers, and at least 21 ISGS militants were killed, and eight Nigeriens and two US soldiers including the team commander were wounded. In the day preceding the ambush, the Nigerien and US soldiers conducted a mission attempting to locate and capture or kill Doundou Chefou, a commander in the ISGS.
The Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (IS-GS) is a terrorist group adhering to the ideology of Salafi Jihadism. IS-GS was formed on 15 May 2015 as the result of a split within the militant group Al-Mourabitoun. The rift was a reaction to the adherence of one of its leaders, Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahraoui, to the Islamic State. From March 2019 to 2022, IS-GS was formally part of the Islamic State – West Africa Province (ISWAP); when it was also called "ISWAP-Greater Sahara". In March 2022, IS declared the province autonomous, separating it from its West Africa Province.
Lehbib Ould Ali Ould Said Ould Yumani, known as Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi, was a Sahrawi Islamic terrorist and leader of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara.
The insurgency in Cabo Delgado refers to the Islamist insurgency in the region of East Africa and the ongoing conflict in Cabo Delgado Province, Mozambique, mainly fought between militant Islamists and jihadists attempting to establish an Islamic state in the region, and Mozambican security forces. Civilians have been the main targets of terrorist attacks by Islamist militants. The main insurgent faction is Ansar al-Sunna, a native extremist faction with tenuous international connections. From mid-2018, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has allegedly become active in northern Mozambique as well, and claimed its first attack against Mozambican security forces in June 2019. In addition, bandits have exploited the rebellion to carry out raids. As of 2020, the insurgency intensified, as in the first half of 2020 there were nearly as many attacks carried out as in the whole of 2019.
The 2017 Ayorou attack occurred on 21 October 2017 when armed militants attacked a Nigerien military outpost in the village of Ayorou in southwestern Niger, killing 13 gendarmes. Occurring just weeks after a similar attack in the area killed four American and four Nigerien troops, the attack was carried out by gunmen who crossed the porous border from Mali. At dawn, militants in 4-5 vehicles and motorcycles and armed with machine guns and rocket launchers attacked paramilitary policemen in Ayorou, a small town on the banks of the Niger River 200 kilometers northwest of Niamey. Thirteen gendarmes were killed and five others were wounded. At least one of the attackers was killed as well. The attackers fled after police reinforcements arrived and pursued them to the border. A similar raid was carried out on the same outpost the previous May.
In the early morning hours of 6 December 2017, militants believed to be affiliated with the Islamic State in West Africa attacked a patrol of US Army Special Forces and Nigerien soldiers near Diffa, in the Lake Chad Basin Region in Niger. During the ensuing firefight, Nigerien and American personnel suffered no casualties while 11 militants, including two wearing suicide vests, were killed. An enemy weapons cache was also destroyed by the joint US/Nigerien force. The firefight was not planned as the purpose of the mission was aimed at setting "the conditions for future partner-led operations against violent extremist organizations in the region".
American intervention in Niger refers to the deployment of special forces and drones both unarmed and armed by the United States Military and CIA in support of the Nigerien Government and French Forces in counter-terrorism operations against militant groups in Niger as part of Operation Juniper Shield. The special forces deployment in Niger and in the greater West Africa region involves the training of host nation partner forces, enhancement of host nation security assistance efforts and to conduct counter-terrorism and surveillance and reconnaissance missions with host nation partner forces. The deployment of drones by the Air Force and CIA is to assist American and Nigerien forces in counter-terrorism operations, to monitor routes used by militants in Niger into neighboring nations and to assist ongoing operations in Libya.
The Chad Basin campaign of 2018–2020 was a series of battles and offensives in the southern Chad Basin, particularly northeastern Nigeria, which took place amid the ongoing Boko Haram insurgency. The Chad Basin witnessed an upsurge of insurgent activity from early November 2018, as rebels belonging to the Islamic State's West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Boko Haram launched offensives and several raids to regain military strength and seize territory in a renewed attempt to establish an Islamic state in the region. These attacks, especially those by ISWAP, met with considerable success and resulted in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians. The member states of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MJTF), namely Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon responded to the increased insurgent activity with counter-offensives. These operations repulsed the rebels in many areas, but failed to fully contain the insurgency.
On 9 January 2020, a large group of Islamic State in the Greater Sahara militants assaulted a Nigerien military base at Chinagodrar, in Niger's Tillabéri Region. They attacked an army post in Chinagodrar, in the west of the country, in Tillabéri Region, 13 kilometres from the border with Mali, 210 kilometres north of Niamey. At least 89 Nigerien soldiers were confirmed to have been killed in the attack with more casualties suspected, but yet to be confirmed. The Nigerien government said that 77 militants were killed.
This article lists events from the year 2020 in Niger.
Events in the year 2021 in Mali.
The jihadist insurgency in Niger or Islamist insurgency in Niger is an ongoing war and civil conflict between the government of Niger and Salafi jihadist groups.
The Second Battle of Tongo-Tongo took place on December 27 and 28, 2018 during the Sahel War.
Islamist insurgency in the Sahel or Jihadist Insurgencies in the Sahel refers to the Islamist insurgency in the Sahel region of West Africa following the 2011 Arab Spring to the present day. In particular, the intensive conflict in the three countries of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso has been referred to as the Sahel War.