A Sankofa Retrospective Literature Review & Analysis of "What Really Went Wrong" in the Sahel

It has been over two decades since Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs of Department of State Robert Perry and S/CT Deputy Coordinator Stephanie Kinney, along with other State representatives, visited Chad, Niger, Mauritania and Mali, to brief host nations on the Pan Sahel Initiative (PSI), a program designed to protect borders, track movement of people, combat terrorism, and enhance regional cooperation and stability, terrorism remains a pivotal national security threat to the United States and regional peace security challenge facing the Western Sahel regions. Since then, the countries in the Western Sahel have now become the epicenter for terrorists’ activities in the world with its consequences on U.S National Security interests, while the ECOWAS regional block struggles to raise $2.6 billion annually to establish a 5,000-strong security force to combat terrorism and promote regional peace and security. The epicenter of global terrorism has shifted from the Middle East to Africa’s Central Sahel region. For the first time in 13 years, a country other than Afghanistan or Iraq has topped the GTI, with Burkina Faso now ranked first. Mali and Niger remain among the most affected by terrorism as well. According to the latest data from the Africa Union Counter Terrorism Center (AUCTC), the five most affected countries by terrorist attacks during the second quarter of 2024 (April-June 2024) were Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Somalia, Mali, and Cameroon in decreasing order. The most active terrorist groups on the continent include Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al Muslimin (JNIM), Al-Shabaab, Islamic State West Africa (ISWAP), Boko Haram, and the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). While no region of the continent is spared from conflicts involving terrorist groups, apart from the dire situation in the Sahel, particularly troubling, as noted by the President of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission, is the expansion of terrorism into the coastal states of West Africa, including Benin, Togo, and Côte d’Ivoire. (Amani Africa 2024). With all the CT U.S. security assistance to the member states of the Sahel region, one will ask “What Really Went Wrong” and what next for U.S. in the region?