What is behind church attacks in Burkina Faso?

Recent attacks on churches in northern Burkina Faso are likely to be the work of jihadists whose activities are growing in the region despite a military operation to contain Islamist militancy.

The country’s foreign minister says tackling terrorism has become a fight “for the very survival” of the Sahel region, which incorporates Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger. The militants have forced 100,000 in Burkina Faso alone to flee their homes in recent months.

Who are the militants?
Three key Islamist militant groups have established a front in northern and eastern Burkina Faso: Ansarul Islam, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (GSIM) and Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS).

One of the most audacious attacks of recent years - the January 2016 siege on a luxury hotel that killed 30 people in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou - was carried out by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which has since merged with two other jihadist groups - Ansar Dine and al-Mourabitoun - to form GSIM.

It operates in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso and was behind two other attacks in Ouagadougou - on a café in August 2017 and the French embassy and army HQ in March 2018.

A propaganda video released last month by the Islamic State (IS) group shows the Sahel’s appeal to global jihadism when “brothers” in Burkina Faso and Mali were congratulated for pledging their allegiance.
Ansarul Islam, meaning Defenders of Islam, is the home-grown group, founded in 2016 by the radical and popular preacher Ibrahim Malam Dicko, who is said to have fought with Islamist militants in Mali when they took over the north of country in 2012, prompting France’s intervention.

Dicko died in April 2017 and his brother Jafar is now leading the group, which has received logistical support from both AQIM and ISGS, according to Human Rights Watch.

Widespread frustration with the lack of jobs and infrastructure has made Burkina Faso a fertile recruiting ground for jihadists - and there are numerous smaller groups, not all of which are affiliated to larger ones or pledge allegiance to Islamist ideology.
According to the Economist, many are fighting for farmland or against government corruption but “adopt the ‘jihadist’ label because they happen to be Muslim”.

In the last month there have been at least five attacks targeting Christians, several taking place during church services - though no group has said it was behind these assaults, analysts say they have all the jihadists’ hallmarks.

It shows a shift in tactics, according to Djallil Lounnas, an expert on militancy in the Sahara at Morocco’s Al Akhawayn University.
“Usually religious minorities have not been touched, especially Christian minorities, since jihadist violence broke out in the area,” he says.

This is particularly troubling given Burkina Faso’s long history of religious tolerance, but it forms part of a jihadist strategy to sow religious and inter-communal conflict.

“It’s an old guerrilla, terrorist tactic to increase their ranks by fuelling mass violence,” says Louis Audet-Gosselin of the Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism.

Conflict and instability also create the conditions that allow jihadists to install bases and control territory.

How have Islamist militants disrupted life?
“The security situation in the country is degrading almost daily,” says Mr Audet-Gosselin. “Jihadist groups are gaining ground bit by bit, forcing state officials and state sovereignty out of several rural areas and increasingly some cities.”

Those targeted are often associated with the state - village counsellors, mayors, police officers, civil servants and civilians accused of collaborating with military.

Schools and teachers are soft targets for Islamists militants, who oppose secular education. More than 1,000 schools in the north have been forced to close recently, affecting more than 150,000 children.

Human Rights Watch has also reported numerous abuses by government forces during counter-terrorism operations, including summary executions of Fulanis, a largely Muslim ethnic group of semi-nomadic herders.

“The army is pretty brutal and tends to single out the Fulani community as a whole, as guilty by association to jihadist groups... which in turn leads to increasing militancy from Fulani youth,” says Mr Audet-Gosselin.

A lack of services has created a vacuum that militant groups have been able to exploit by sometimes stepping in to deliver them, but mostly their presence means chaos and violence.

Witnesses say gunmen also sporadically go on the rampage, looting shops and mugging people.
There are fears the influence of Burkina Faso-based jihadist groups could spread south, giving them access to sea ports through which they could smuggle weapons, drugs and other illegal goods to fund their activities.