Spotlight on Africa: Global jihadism's growing grip on Africa

As attacks from jihadist groups allied to Tuaregs continue in Mali, global jihadism threatens Africa like no other region on earth, according to ACLED's latest report. With the organisation's expert on West Africa, Spotlight on Africa explores how jihadist groups are expanding across the continent, controlling territory, targeting civilians and disrupting infrastructure.

Coordinated attacks by Tuareg separatists and jihadists dealt a major new blow to the junta in power in the capital, Bamako, in the last days of April, securing the capture of Kidal, a northern rebel stronghold.

Several strategic towns and areas around the capital Bamako were also targeted in the offensive by Tuareg rebels of the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) coalition and the jihadist Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), which was launched at dawn on Saturday 25 April.

Two days of intense fighting followed between Malian soldiers and the armed groups around Bamako and Kati, a garrison town and junta stronghold about 15 kilometres north of the capital.

Mali's junta has now lost control of key northern areas and still faces a growing insurgent campaign that is tightening pressure around Bamako rather than directly attempting to seize the capital.

Analysts say this could be a turning point for the military in power since a 2020 coup.

Mali plunged into uncertainty following coordinated attacks on junta

Mali has been beset by violence from radical Islamists affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group since 2012, as well as local criminal gangs and pro-independence fighters.

For more than a decade, around 300,000 refugees have fled to eastern Mauritania's desert Hodh Chargui region to escape the violence that has plagued Mali.

Héni Nsaibia is the senior analyst for West Africa at ACLED, the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data group. He co-wrote the organisation's latest report, released in mid-May, showing that global jihadism threatens Africa like no other region on earth. It also explores how jihadist groups are expanding across the continent, controlling territory, targeting civilians and disrupting infrastructure.

Héni Nsaibia is Spotlight on Africa's guest this week.

"The whole offensive in Mali really marked a turning point in the conflict," he told RFI.

"It's not a development that arrived overnight; it's a gradual process that has been ongoing for many years. However, in the past few years, and especially since the military regimes in the region came to power, we have seen a degradation of the security situation in all three countries that form the alliance of Sahel states, where military officers have taken power on promises to deliver on security."

JNIM is likely to maintain military pressure on the Malian regime as it attempts to isolate the capital and ultimately bring down the government, thereby posing an existential threat to Bamako, according to Nsaibia.

The report also shows that West Africa has become the world's most active zone of Islamist militancy, with groups now combining improved tactics with greater coordination and the use of technologies such as armed drones.

Why the Sahel is now the world’s deadliest region for terrorism

As the security landscape across the Central Sahel and Lake Chad Basin shifts rapidly, the latest ACLED report reveals that jihadist activity is no longer just a series of localised insurgencies but a coordinated effort to challenge state authority across the region, with Islamic State activity in Africa hitting a record high of 86 per cent in early 2026.

Since early 2025, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) has also changed tactics and conducted more complex attacks carried out in succession over a short period of time.

With Héni Nsaibia, we will also discuss how jihadism has evolved across the rest of the continent.

The problem is now affecting not only the three Sahelian states of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, but is spreading rapidly across West Africa and beyond, including Somalia, Mozambique and the Great Lakes region.

This episode was mixed by Erwan Rome.