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The largest node in the theater. In 2026 JNIM moved from rural control to pressure on capitals, blockading Bamako's fuel supply and mounting coordinated raids on multiple cities; Islamic State claimed an assault on Niamey's airport. In the Lake Chad basin, Boko Haram and ISWAP continued mass abductions and attacks on military positions. Rights monitors and Amnesty documented large civilian death tolls from army airstrikes on both sides of the Nigeria-Sahel divide.
Each card below is one coalition with its own frame on the same contested phenomenon.
Weekly attributed-headline count per narrative. Visual asymmetry is signal: some coalitions dominate the vocabulary, others stay sporadic.
Loaded vocabulary per coalition and recent headlines under each frame.
Per-week distribution of events on this friction node. Click a bar to see that week's top events.
Click a week bar to select. Light blue = active week.
Distinct conflicts with their own coalitions. Headlines that fit here do not show in the umbrella above.
The largest node in the theater. In 2026 JNIM moved from rural control to pressure on capitals, blockading Bamako's fuel supply and mounting coordinated raids on multiple cities; Islamic State claimed an assault on Niamey's airport. In the Lake Chad basin, Boko Haram and ISWAP continued mass abductions and attacks on military positions. Rights monitors and Amnesty documented large civilian death tolls from army airstrikes on both sides of the Nigeria-Sahel divide.
Sahelian and Nigerian armies, with the partners they have chosen, are fighting internationally designated armed groups that kill civilians, abduct schoolchildren and blockade cities -- and operations that degrade those groups deserve support rather than second-guessing.
Sahel Region
Nigeria
RussiaCoordinated assaults on Bamako, the fuel blockade of the capital and the fall of garrison towns show armies that no longer control their own terrain, and a military government whose core promise -- security -- has failed.
Sahel RegionNigeriaDrone strikes on weddings, mass executions documented by rights monitors, and the abuses of foreign auxiliaries mean the campaign against the armed groups is itself a major source of civilian death -- and impunity is fuelling recruitment.
Tuareg formations took full control of Kidal in 2026 after an arrangement under which Russian forces withdrew from the town, and declared that the government in Bamako would fall. They claimed coordinated attacks jointly with JNIM -- a tactical alignment between a secular separatist movement and an al-Qaeda affiliate that both Bamako and Moscow cite as grounds to treat the two as one.
Sahel RegionNigeria