Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) has reportedly decided to send fighters to reinforce its affiliate, Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP), in Mali’s Ménaka region, highlighting continued movement of militants between the Lake Chad Basin and the Sahel.
The information was reported by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), which said it obtained the details from defectors who remain in contact with current ISWAP members. According to the information cited by ISS, about 100 fighters could be sent to Ménaka to reinforce ISSP. The report describes a planned deployment rather than a confirmed movement of the fighters.
Ménaka, in northeastern Mali, is an important area for ISSP, which operates across parts of the Sahel. The reported plan would link the group’s operations more closely with ISWAP, whose main area of activity is the Lake Chad Basin, spanning parts of Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon.
The reported movement is part of a broader pattern of militant mobility between the two regions. ISS said ISWAP and ISSP have maintained operational links, including cooperation in attacks and the movement of personnel and resources.
In January, ISWAP fighters were reportedly involved in coordinated attacks targeting Niger’s Diori Hamani International Airport and Air Base 101 in Niamey. According to ISS, sources linked to the Multinational Joint Task Force reported observing ISWAP fighters moving westward in the weeks before the attacks, while other sources in Nigeria provided information consistent with those observations.
The Lake Chad Basin remains one of the main centers of Islamic State activity in Africa. ISWAP has maintained a significant presence in northeastern Nigeria and surrounding areas, while the group’s activities have also affected communities and security forces in neighboring Cameroon, Chad, and Niger.
The Sahel has simultaneously experienced a sustained increase in militant Islamist violence. Data from the Africa Center for Strategic Studies recorded 23,872 deaths linked to militant Islamist violence across Africa over the latest 12-month period, with more than 9,900 occurring in the Sahel.
The reported ISWAP plan underscores the geographical links between militant networks operating across the Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin. For security forces in countries such as Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, those links make the movement of fighters and operational cooperation across borders an ongoing security concern.
