Armed groups linked to al-Qaeda and Islamic State are increasingly using drones to carry out attacks in West Africa, prompting concern that insurgents are developing the capacity to wage war from the air.
The violence monitoring organisation ACLED says it has documented at least 69 drone strikes by the al-Qaeda affiliate Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) in Burkina Faso and Mali since 2023. Two Islamic State affiliates are also reported to have conducted around 20 such attacks, most of them in Nigeria, where the military has battled multiple insurgencies for nearly 25 years.
One of the most recent incidents took place on January 29 in Nigeria’s north-eastern Borno state, when jihadist fighters launched a coordinated assault on a military base using armed drones alongside ground forces.
According to researcher Serwat, the Islamic State West Africa Province has carried out at least 10 drone strikes since 2024 across north-eastern Nigeria, as well as in northern Cameroon, southern Niger and southern Chad, all areas affected by the long-running insurgency.
However, the group most associated with the use of drones remains JNIM, which is said to have conducted dozens of strikes in Mali and Burkina Faso, and at least one cross-border attack in Togo.
–ChannelAfrica–
