This week, the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) published a second set of new
reports, Linkages Of Terrorist Groups In West Africa With Terrorist Networks In
Other African Regions and Interlinkage Of Terrorism And Transnational Organized
Crime In West Africa as part of a year-long joint project with the Konrad
Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) focusing on the various elements of instability in this
region. These latest reports explore the linkages of al-Qaeda, ISIS, and
Hezbollah affiliates in West Africa with other terror groups across the
continent as well as with transnational organized crime networks.





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New CEP Reports Assess Ties Between Terror Groups In Africa And Their Ties To
Organized Crime



(New York, N.Y.) — This week, the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) published a
second set of new reports,Linkages Of Terrorist Groups In West Africa With
Terrorist Networks In Other African Regions
<[link removed]>
andInterlinkage Of Terrorism And Transnational Organized Crime In West Africa
<[link removed]>
as part of a year-long joint project with the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS)
focusing on the various elements of instability in this region. These latest
reports explore the linkages of al-Qaeda, ISIS, and Hezbollah affiliates in
West Africa with other terror groups across the continent as well as with
transnational organized crime networks.



In Linkages Of Terrorist Groups In West Africa With Terrorist Networks In
Other African Regions, Dr. Ini Dele-Adedeji, research associate at the School
of Oriental & African Studies at the University of London, and CEP Senior
Research AnalystSofia Koller
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interplay between Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM), IS West Africa
Province (ISWAP), and IS in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) with terrorist groups in
North, West-Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa. JNIM and ISGS in particular
have demonstrated particular interest in expansion through the West African
sub-region, taking advantage of political instability in Guinea, Burkina Faso,
Chad, Guinea Bissau, and Niger, and cooperating through information sharing and
participation in transnational organized crime.



The authors recommend greater cooperation among West African states through
increased border security, preventing the groups from spreading southward into
states surrounding the Gulf of Guinea, and collaboration with European partners
to develop a database of foreign terrorist fighters in the region.



In Interlinkage Of Terrorism And Transnational Organized Crime In West Africa,
illicit economies and trade expert Dr. Theo Clement and CEP Senior DirectorDr.
Hans-Jakob Schindler
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role of transnational organized crime and its use in West Africa to support
these terror networks financially. Terror groups in West Africa tend to
specialize regionally in a particular aspect of the transnational organized
crime supply chain. For example, Hezbollah’s African cell utilizes its vast
money laundering network—sourced in Lebanon—to facilitate gold and diamond
smuggling. ISGS, in contrast, exacts levies on the local population in exchange
for providing basic public services. Others control protected land in national
parks for poaching and illicit trade—a practice that is prevalent in Burkina
Faso and the forest of Sambisa.



To effectively disrupt these terror groups’ links to transnational crime
networks, the report recommends employing U.S. and German military forces to
stabilize the avenues utilized for illicit trade along the Gulf of Guinea,
increasing cooperation with European stakeholders, and broadly reinforcing the
regional law enforcement apparatus. Additionally, it encourages members of the
West African sub-region to participate in the United Nations’ Office on Drugs
and Crime-World Customs Organization Container Control Program and INTERPOL's
West African Police Information System to improve cooperation with its northern
neighbors.



To read Linkages Of Terrorist Groups In West Africa With Terrorist Networks In
Other African Regions, please click here
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.



To read Interlinkage Of Terrorism And Transnational Organized Crime In West
Africa,please click here
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.



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