Ansaru Resurgent: The Rebirth of Al-Qaeda’s Nigerian Franchise

As jihadi violence spreads throughout the Sahel, Ansaru, al-Qaeda’s franchise in Nigeria, has renewed its presence in the country’s northwest. This has occurred as Ansaru’s two rivals, the unaffiliated ‘Boko Haram’ and the Islamic State’s West Africa Province, also announced their own branches or activities in northwestern Nigeria for the first time, which, like Ansaru, involved cooperation with bandits. Ansaru’s renewed presence in northwestern Nigeria also coincides with al-Qaeda-affiliated fighters pushing further south from their historical bases in Mali into southern Burkina Faso and Niger. These simultaneous developments raise concerns about the growth of West African jihadist movements, interactions between Nigerian and Sahelian jihadists and both of them with bandits, and the possible realization of an ‘arc of insurgency’ in West Africa. Ansaru’s renewed presence in northwestern Nigeria, amid the inability of the Nigerian state to provide security in that region, has ramifications for the growth of al-Qaeda in West Africa because it could lead to al-Qaeda’s uniting its Sahelian and Nigerian jihad theaters for the first time.