Fula people

September 18, 2024 | Caleb Weiss |

Al Qaeda strikes the Malian capital

The Group for Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), al Qaeda’s West African branch, claimed responsibility for a coordinated assault in Mali’s capital city of Bamako yesterday. The attack comes as JNIM...

November 3, 2021 | Clifford D. May |

Dispatches from troubled lands

They deserve attention – BHL’s self-promotion notwithstanding

May 8, 2020 | Thomas Joscelyn, Caleb Weiss

Analysis: Islamic State claims Al Qaeda started a war in West Africa

The Islamic State claims in the latest edition of its weekly Al-Naba newsletter that Al Qaeda started a “war” against the so-called caliphate’s men in West Africa. Independent reporting confirms...

December 26, 2019 | Clifford D. May

The war against Christians

It hit a peak in the last century but it's ongoing in the Middle East, Africa and Asia

February 28, 2018 | Clifford D. May

Black lives in Africa

No nation in Africa is receiving more attention right now than Wakanda. And why not since, as Anthony Lane writes in The New Yorker, Wakanda is “a model of serenity,” that also is &ld...

June 21, 2016 | Daveed Gartenstein-Ross

Boko Haram’s Buyer’s Remorse

When Boko Haram pledged loyalty to the Islamic State in March 2015, it seemed to signal that the jihadi world was bending in the direction of the self-proclaimed caliphate. At the time, Boko Hara...

September 16, 2010 | World Defense Review

Nigeria at the Crossroads, Again

Focused on the final stretch of the midterm elections at home, policymakers and pundits in the United States have hardly evinced any interest in concerning themselves with electoral politics abro...

July 4, 2007 | Dr. J. Peter Pham World Defense Review

Cabinda: The “Forgotten Conflict” America Can’t Afford to Forget

Because of the sense of urgency repeatedly communicated by this column as well as the parallel efforts of other "Africa hands," the precarious situation of Nigeria – which I have described...

June 13, 2007 | Dr. J. Peter Pham World Defense Review

Nigeria: Flailing State

On the final day of their summit last week at the German Baltic seaside resort of Heiligendamm, as they are nowadays wont to do, the leaders of the G8 received a select delegation of their Africa...

May 2, 2007 | Dr. J. Peter Pham World Defense Review

Nigeria Teeters Back from the Brink — For Now

Two weeks ago in this column space I observed that free, fair, and credible elections in Nigeria "would lead to the inauguration of a legitimate political order;[which] would not only consolidate...

March 1, 2007 |

The Battle for Nigeria

WITH AROUND 36 billion barrels of proven petroleum reserves-the largest in Africa and the eighth largest in the world-Nigeria is America's fifth-largest supplier of oil. In 2006, the United...

February 28, 2007 | Dr. J. Peter Pham World Defense Review

Au revoir, mon Général

Exactly four months ago in this same column space, I observed that just "getting the outside world to focus on the current terrorist and other security challenges in Africa is a difficult enough...

December 22, 2006 |

Nigeria’s Electoral Intrigue

It barely registers on inside-the-Beltway policy discussions, but few countries are as vital to the strategic interests of the United States as Nigeria. With some 35.9 billion barrels of proven p...

November 2, 2006 | World Defense Review

The Coming Chaos in Guinea

Getting the outside world to focus on the current terrorist and other security challenges in Africa is a difficult enough task (see last week's discussion of the ongoing Somali crisis). Dire...

October 12, 2006 | World Defense Review

In Nigeria False Prophets Are Real Problems

Last week a judge in Yola in the Nigerian state of Adamawa sentenced Musa Ali Suleiman (aka Musa Makaniki) to death by hanging. As his nom de guerre hints, Musa Makaniki is a mechanic who gave up...

October 5, 2006 | World Defense Review

Nigeria at the Crossroads

Over the long-term, perhaps no African country is as vital to the strategic interests of the United States as Nigeria. Alas, the country is also a study in contradictions. With some 35.9...

July 27, 2006 | World Defense Review

Al Qaeda Moves to Africa

While events in the Middle East understandably preoccupy American policymakers at the moment, we cannot afford to forget that Israel's war of self-defense against the terrorist Hamas and Hez...

May 3, 2006 | World Defense Review

Militant Islamism’s Shadow Rises Over Sub-Saharan Africa

While the genocidal activities currently being perpetrated in the Darfur region of western Sudan at the instance of the country's Khartoum-based Arabist Islamist regime – and this comi...