This unaltered story [1] was originally published on OpenDemocracy.org.
License [2]: Creative Commons 4.0 - Attributions/No Derivities/Int'l.
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While the West focused on Afghanistan, ISIS gained ground in Iraq and beyond

By:   []

Date: 2021-12

When the Taliban movement finally took control of Afghanistan in August, it had already spread its influence across much of the country. In doing so, it had struck uneasy alliances with al-Qaida groups but remained bitterly opposed by ISIS-K (Islamic State Khorasan Province, the official affiliate of ISIS in Afghanistan). An indication of ISIS-K’s power came with the devastating bombing at Kabul airport towards the end of the chaotic evacuation, killing more than a hundred people.

Since the Taliban takeover, ISIS-K has continued to be a serious problem, having been responsible for further bombing attacks in Afghan cities. But, away from Afghanistan, more attention has recently been focused on the wider jihadist movements in the Sahel region of the Sahara as well as to the south-east, into the Democratic Republic of the Congo near the Ugandan border, and, further away, in the Capo Delgado Province in Mozambique.

In the Sahel itself, ISIS followers went as far as assassinating the leader of the Nigerian Boko Haram earlier this year, in efforts to take control of the movement. Meanwhile paramilitary activity has steadily increased in Mali, especially around the tri-state border that the country shares with Burkina Faso and Niger.

French, American and British forces, both regular and special force/CIA personnel, have long been active in the Sahel – particularly France, which has stationed more than 5,000 troops there. But with extreme levels of corruption, maladministration and military incompetence in the region, particularly in Mali, the government in Paris plans to withdraw half its troops by late 2022, reasoning that it will not commit them into danger with little promise of success.

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The Mali insurgency originally developed after the fall of the Gaddafi regime in Libya in 2011, when Libyan paramilitaries – and those from Algeria – began spreading south. Since 2013, a complex insurgency has developed, focused mainly on Mali but with links to Mauretania, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria and Chad. The main groups in Mali are loosely linked to al-Qaida and ISIS and the trend of the past three years has been of a marked increase in violence. Altogether, the paramilitaries may number only around 4,000, but attacks have increased fivefold since 2016, with more than 4,000 killed in the past 12 months alone.

A 15,000-strong UN peacekeeping force, the Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), has operated in the country for more than six years. But this is not a counter-insurgency force: its role is primarily one of protecting local populations and the national administration – and there is little willingness among the UN leadership to expand its operations, as MINUSMA has had one of the worst death tolls in UN peacekeeping history with 258 troops killed so far.
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[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/while-the-west-focused-on-afghanistan-isis-gained-ground-in-iraq-and-beyond/
[2] url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/

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