Islamist militants in West Africa

In the aftermath of the Arab Spring revolts, the fight against militant Islam in this moderate swath of Africa has gained fresh urgency.

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Aug. 7, 2012

Fighters from the al-Qaeda-linked Islamist group Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJWA) stand guard in Gao, northern Mali. Burkina Faso's foreign minister, Djibril Bassole, the lead mediator in regional efforts to end unrest in Mali, told rebels there that they had to cut ties to "terrorist movements" such as al-Qaeda before any peace talks could begin. Today, the Islamist militants in Mali have imposed strict laws reminiscent of the Taliban in Afghanistan, banning television and soccer and ordering women to wear full-length robes.

Reuters /

June 16, 2012

Militiamen from the Islamist group Ansar Dine, who said they had come from Niger and Mauritania, ride on a vehicle at Kidal in northeastern Mali. The leader of Ansar Dine in northern Mali has rejected any form of independence of the northern half of the country and has vowed to pursue plans to impose sharia law throughout the West African nation.

/ Reuters

Aug. 9, 2012

A pickup truck belonging to the Islamist group Ansar Dine is show loaded with weapons at Kidal Airport in northern Mali. Mali's government said that military intervention in the militant-held north was "inevitable" as the jihadists defied mediation efforts.

Romaric Hien / AFP/Getty Images

Jan. 23, 2012

Men push a cart with goods in Kano, Nigeria, following recent sectarian attacks in January by the radical Islamist sect called Boko Haram, which means "Western education is sacrilege" in the Hausa language of Nigeria's north. The sect has its sympathizers: Some families are refusing to vaccinate children because they view it as a Western conspiracy or have stopped sending girls to school.

Sunday Alamba / AP

April 11, 2012

People wait with their baggage beside a truck in the hope of finding a passage to flee Timbuktu, Mali. Amid the political upheaval following a March 21 coup, separatist rebels in northern Mali declared an independent state that is larger than France. The power vacuum also has allowed an Islamist faction that wants to impose sharia law in the area. The streets of Timbuktu have emptied since Tuareg separatist rebels took power in April as residents, fearing further fighting or the impact of sharia law, flee south.

/ AP

Jan. 21, 2012

A man walks through the ruins of a police headquarters after a bomb attack in Nigeria's northern city of Kano, where more than 100 people were killed in bomb attacks and gunfights in a strike claimed by Boko Haram. Most southerners depend on northern Nigeria for goods, but the lawlessness there, border closings and intensified security searches have driven up prices of staple foods, such as millet, by 60 percent.

/ Reuters

May 17, 2010

A nomad from the Tuareg tribe of the Sahara desert brings his herd for vaccination to a team of U.S. Special Forces handing out aid near the town of Gao in northeastern Mali. With almost no resistance, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) is implanting itself in Africa's soft tissue, choosing as its host Mali, one of the poorest nations on Earth. Although AQIM's leaders are Algerian, it has recruited people from Mali, including 60 to 80 Tuareg fighters.

Alfred de Montesquiou / AP

March 21, 2012

Boko Haram attacks against churches, banks and government institutions in northern Nigeria are triggering economic turmoil in southern Niger. Weapons and ammunition, along with police uniforms and bulletproof vests, recovered from suspected Boko Haram sect members are shown in Kano, Nigeria.

Salisu Rabiu / AP

May 1, 2012

U.S. and U.N. officials are worried that the arsenal of former Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi, including rocket-propelled grenades, light antiaircraft artillery and shoulder missiles, could end up in the hands of Boko Haram and AQIM. The end of Gaddafi’s regime in Libya sent thousands of Tuareg fighters who fought for him, along with massive arsenals of weapons, into northern Mali, their ancestral home. Here, soldiers stand near the body of a suspected member of Boko Haram after a raid by soldiers in Kano, Nigeria.

Salisu Rabiu / AP

May 1, 2012

Mothers and children of suspected members of the sect known as Boko Haram sit outside their homes after a raid by soldiers in Kano, Nigeria.

Salisu Rabiu / AP

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