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Nigerian soldiers from the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) drive an armoured truck in Monguno, Borno state, Nigeria, on 5 July, 2025. |
The objective is clear: to join forces to fight terrorism more effectively, that is why Benin and Nigeria are preparing a cross-border security strategy to be soon officialised.
High-ranking military officials in charge of counterterrorism operations in both countries met in Cotonou on 27 February. And French leaders also participated in the meeting, officially to support this initiative.
The cooperation will include the coordination of border patrols, joint operations, intelligence sharing, and increased monitoring of cross-border flows, which are to be discussed later in March.
According to Sunday Dare, Senior Advisor to Nigeria's President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the current administration cares deeply about regional cooperation across the West African subregion on the issue of security, not just amongst Nigeria and Benin's Republic.
He told me that, yes, "because of the porosity of the borders, we've had armed trafficking, we've had criminal gangs, we've had Boko Haram, we've had ISIS and other groups."
But President Tinubu is committed to fostering a very cordial relationship with Benin and its other neighbours that will lead to better economic development, his adviser said.
"Just last month he opened the borders to not just Benin, but also Niger, and that has improved relations," Dare added.
'Step in the right direction'
"It's definitely a step in the right direction," senior analyst for west Africa at ACLED, Heni Nsaibia, told me. "Because, as research has shown, border security has really been a factor contributing to this insecurity that we have seen in the Benin, Niger and Nigeria borderlands in particular."
Northeastern Benin is bordering northwestern Nigeria, and armed terrorist groups are increasing their attacks on both sides of the border.
"Due to very weak border security and coordination between concerned states, seeing Benin and Nigeria reinforcing their cooperation is particularly relevant," Nsaibia added, "because we have seen both Sahelian and Nigerian groups operating across their common borders, especially between the Borgou Department and Kwara State, on the respective side on the border."
Nsaibia also underlined that it's not only Benin and Nigeria that are reinforcing their military cooperation.
"We have also seen in the past weeks that Ghana and Burkina Faso have taken similar steps. From a regional perspective, these borders are most exposed to jihadist violence, and I think it makes sense for these countries to have these types of rapprochement between each other."
Increased, spreading attacks
The border area between Benin, Niger and Nigeria has actually become a new centre of jihadist violence in 2025, with a sharp increase in attacks, according to Nsaibia's most recent research, published last week by ACLED, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data group, which tracks victims of global conflict.
Violence involving the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) and the Islamic State in the Sahel (EIS) was up 86 percent compared to 2024. Deaths jumped by 26 percent, according to ACLED.
Both groups have long been concentrated in the Sahel countries of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, but are now spreading to west Africa's coastal countries.
"Over the past year, the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) and the Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP) have expanded their violent campaigns in the Benin, Niger, and Nigeria borderlands," Nsaibia wrote in his analysis.
ACLED data indicate that this expansion has entered a new phase marked by entrenchment and the transformation of littoral border regions into a flashpoint of violence, the expert added. "Sahelian jihadist militants have escalated, entrenched, and increasingly broadcast their footprint."
From Benin to Togo and Côte d'Ivoire
Founded in Mali in 2017, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) is now the main jihadist group in the central Sahel. Since 2019, the al-Qaeda affiliate has also been carrying out attacks in countries along the Gulf of Guinea, including Côte d’Ivoire, Benin and Togo.
The International Crisis Group (ICG) also released a report on 20 February, showing that JNIM’s spread beyond the Sahel is a major security concern for West African countries. It cites Benin and Togo as the countries in the greatest peril.
"Yet expansion is not the main priority for the group, whose leaders are concerned that pushing outward too fast could fragment the movement’s ranks," the report states.
To respond to the jihadists’ advance, coastal states should indeed invest more in intelligence gathering to develop "a more granular understanding of potential local threats," according to ICG.
Finally, states should explore the scope for reaching understandings with jihadists aimed at reducing levels of violence.
Cross-border attacks
In Benin and Nigeria, the increase in attacks has been seen in areas such as Alibori and Borgou in northern Benin, the Dosso region of southern Niger, and the Nigerian states of Sokoto, Kebbi, Niger and Kwara.
Cross-border attacks by jihadists from Niger and Burkina Faso against the military made last year "the deadliest year to date" in Benin, research indicates.
JNIM last year also claimed responsibility for the first time for an attack on Nigerian soil, said Nsaibia.
The increase in violence came be blamed on "limited state presence", according to the expert, as well as weakened regional cooperation since Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger withdrew from the Ecowas bloc.
The jihadists are consolidating their presence in the border area through recruitment across ethnic and linguistic lines, by co-opting local bandits and control of smuggling routes, particularly of fuel from northern Nigeria to the Niger river and Benin.
The 'right of pursuit into neighbouring territory'
All expert agree the increased cooperation between Benin and Nigeria is good news.
The Beninese representative, General Abu Issa, Chief of Staff of the Army, is in charge, accompanied by several high-ranking officers, including the commander of Operation Mirador.
The Nigerian delegation is led by Major General Adamu Laka, director of the National Counter-Terrorism Centre.
Some experts are advocating for the inclusion of a right of pursuit, allowing the tracking of terrorists even into neighboring territory when they take refuge there after an attack.
A new meeting is scheduled before the end of March in Benin, according to the authorities, to make progress on the draft memorandum of understanding.
"As I understand it, it relates to preventing militant activity and by doing so, trying to mitigate the threat through joint patrols, increased intelligence sharing," Nsaibia told me, "but also the right of pursuit, that is to the respective country being able to pursue militants that often flee and jump the border in order to escape the intervening forces."
He thinks this combination makes a lot of sense, and said talks about a joint Ecowas force are also in the making.
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