Several rangers, including a French national, were targeted on Tuesday and Thursday in attacks in W National Park in the north of the country. In Paris, the national anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation.
The jihadist grip is tightening on Benin, this West African country long considered a haven of peace in the region. On Tuesday, the north of the country experienced new attacks in the W cross-border park, straddling Burkina Faso, Benin and Niger. Having left to flush out poachers, a patrol of forest rangers from African Parks, an NGO to which the Beninese government has entrusted the management of the natural complex, is “fall on an improvised explosive device as well as a second patrol in the same circumstances”, details a press release from the Beninese government. Two days later, a reconnaissance patrol suffered the same fate.
The toll is heavy: at least nine people – six forest rangers, two civil agents from African Parks and an agent from the Beninese armed forces – lost their lives, while twelve others were injured. According to the national anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office, which opened an investigation on Thursday evening by the head of the assassination in relation to a terrorist enterprise, a 50-year-old French national is among the victims. Local media reported that this ex-serviceman worked as an instructor for African Parks.
Recruitment, poaching, trafficking
It is the deadliest in a series of attacks since December in the northern regions of the country of 12 million people, where groups linked to Al-Qaeda and Islamic State have spilled over from Burkina Faso and from neighboring Niger. “France condemns this attack and offers its condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims,” reacted the Quai d’Orsay to Release, adding that checks are underway to identify the nationality of the victims. “Reinforcements from the Beninese armed forces and additional rangers have been deployed on the ground. We continue to work closely with the government of Benin and all local authorities to step up the safety of our staff and local communities,” for its part wrote African Parks in a press release, addressing its “sincere condolences” to the families of the deceased.
Since June 2020, the South African nature conservation organization has officially acquired the management of the Beninese part of the W National Park, which covers more than 8,000 km². Since 2017, it has also piloted that of Pendjari, a territory of more than 32,250 km² on the border with Burkina Faso. “Extremist groups use these parklands to avoid aerial surveillance or feed through poaching. The geographical location of these spaces could allow them to move easily from one country to another,” explains Michaël Matongbada, researcher at ISS Africa. Did the attackers attack the rangers because they were restricting their actions? The same phenomenon was observed in 2018 as jihadists gained ground in eastern Burkina Faso, where attacks targeted water and forest agents.
The rangers, trained, armed and supported by means of aerial surveillance, are on their side “transformed into a counter-terrorism unit” Benin, finds a June 2021 report on the risk of violent extremism spilling over into the country.
Multiplication of attacks
The attack has not yet been claimed, but the jihadist insurgency originating in the Sahel continues to spread towards the coastal countries of the Gulf of Guinea – Benin, Côte d’Ivoire and Togo in the lead. In December, Benin, hitherto relatively spared from the terrorist threat, had already suffered three attacks against its army. The Support Group for Islam and Muslims (Jnim, according to the Arabic acronym), linked to Al-Qaeda, had claimed one of them in an unauthenticated video.
Two French tourists were also kidnapped in May 2019 in Pendjari National Park, also in the north of the country, before being released a few days later by the French army. The operation cost the lives of two special forces soldiers. In June 2021, Kars de Bruijne, a conflict researcher at the Clingendael Institute of International Relations, identified the presence of at least five separate cells in the northern border areas of the country.
This new attack comes as France and its European partners plan to withdraw from Mali, where the security situation continues to deteriorate, while maintaining the intention to continue to fight against the spread of jihadism in the region.
Updated on February 11 at 4 p.m. with a new assessment of the attack.