Sahel: Deadly Jihadists In Africa

You Might Not Have Heard About the Sahel. You Probably Will

With the battlefield defeat of ISIS, the US and its allies might be tempted to pack up and go home. But the group’s “brutal ideology is not dead. A form of it is taking root in and around the Sahel,” The Economist argues.   “Even at the best of times this arid, sparsely populated belt of land that runs along the southern fringe of the Sahara desert is poor and badly governed. Some countries broadly along this belt, such as Somalia or the Central African Republic, have not seen peace for decades. In the past few years the sparks of jihad have been struck in this tinderbox,” The Economist says.   “In lethality, the jihadists in Africa have already overtaken their Iraqi comrades. Last year they killed some 10,000 people, mostly civilians. That compares with about 2,000 civilian deaths in Iraq and Syria. They are also more numerous.”