this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2025
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[–] comfy@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I know Niger is involved in the AES, but where does Nigeria come in?

[–] davel@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Oh hah, my bad. This is happening not far from the border with Niger. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokoto_State

[–] SpookyBogMonster@lemmy.ml 2 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Sokoto has a population of Muslim pastoralists, who are undergoing proletarianization.

Their frustration with this gets expressed through a fascistic Islamism, with appeals to the Golden Age of the independent Sokoto Caliphate (hence the name of the Nigerian state).

Insurgent movements like this are a bit problem for States in the region, and it's part of why AES formed. ECOWAS was largely incapable of dealing with internal security issues, due to its main role as a mechanism of Imperialist value extraction

[–] davel@lemmy.ml 2 points 17 hours ago

I don’t know what exactly is going on there right now, but among the possibilities I can think of, perhaps these are Salafi Jihadists who got pushed out of Niger and went over the border. That’s one of the least nefarious reasons the US might be attacking.