Ivory Coast

Security Post Attacked in Northern Ivory Coast

A security post near Ivory Coast's northern border with jihadist-torn Burkina Faso was attacked overnight, a security official said, and a resident said two people were killed.

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Senegal Must Ready for ‘Battle’ With Jihadists, Says President

Senegal's president said his native country and neighboring West African states must "prepare to do battle" to stop jihadist expansion beyond the Sahel.

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Senegal Uncovers Jihadist Cell in East of Country

Senegalese authorities have foiled a jihadist cell linked to al-Qaeda-affiliated militants in Mali, a leading newspaper in the West African state reported.

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Illegal Gold Mining Funding Armed Groups in Sahel: Interpol

Illegal gold mining in the Sahel, in addition to being a source of funding for armed groups, is also being used as a recruitment ground.

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Ivory Coast Creates Special Military Zone After Jihadist Attack

Ivory Coast has created a military zone in the north to prevent infiltration of militants from neighboring Burkina Faso.

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Burkina Army Says It Has Destroyed Two Jihadist ‘Bases’

Burkina Faso’s security forces said they destroyed two jihadist bases in the north and east of the country and arrested two suspects near the border with the Ivory Coast.

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Ivory Coast Says It Has Captured Jihadist Leader Behind Border Attack

Ivory Coast said it had captured a jihadist who led a deadly attack on a border post and arrested a 'very large' number of his subordinates.

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About 10 Dead in Jihadist Attack on I.Coast Border Post: Security Sources

Suspected jihadists attacked a frontier post on Ivory Coast's border with Burkina Faso overnight, killing around 10 people, security sources said Thursday.

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Eight Jihadists Killed in Ivorian-Burkina Operation: Ivory Coast Army

Eight suspected jihadists were killed and another 38 captured in a joint operation by Burkinabe and Ivorian forces near the two countries’ shared border, the Ivory Coast army said Sunday. The captured men — 24 in Burkina Faso and 14 in Ivory Coast — were handed over to intelligence services, a source at Ivorian army headquarters told AFP. A “terrorist base” was destroyed at Alidougou in Burkina Faso, the source added. Arms, ammunition, USB keys, and cell phones were also seized during the operation, the source said. Operation “Comoe,” named after a river that flows through the two west African countries, was launched in early May, the source said, praising the “perfect coordination between the two armies.” This joint operation, presented on Saturday by the two armies’ top commanders as the first of its kind, took place northeast of the Ivorian town of Ferkessedougou and south of Banfora in Burkina Faso. On Saturday, a Burkinabe security source said the entire operation had been carried out in Ivory Coast. But local people told an AFP journalist that the fighting took place around the villages of Tinadalla and Diambeh north of Kong in the northeast of Ivory Coast. They spoke of a considerable military …

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Worried Togo Finds Itself on Front Line of Sahel’s Jihadist War

In a makeshift bunker of sacks of rice beneath a tree, heavily-armed Togolese soldiers keep watch over villagers coming and going on foot or bike across the border with Burkina Faso. Just a dried-out river bed separates the two West African countries. In surrounding fields, peasant farmers are bent silhouettes, watering the sorghum and maize seeds sown before the arrival of the first rains. Soon, clouds will chase away the fine dust of the harmattan, the desert wind that each year sweeps off the Sahara southwards to the coast and chokes the air. Nothing dramatic, or so it would seem, ever happens at Yemboate, in Togo’s far north. Yet less than 30 kilometers (19 miles) away, over the border in eastern Burkina Faso, jihadists and militia groups have imposed their own brutal law. Those policemen, doctors, and teachers who have not fled are being hunted down and butchered. “When I was small, we spent our time swimming in the river,” says farmer Abdoulaye Mossi, leaning on his bike with a hoe, speaking to AFP before the coronavirus pandemic. The arid channel separates his peaceful village of cob huts from a Burkinabe village on the other side. “Fear rules today,” the farmer says. But fear does …

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