Jihad Against Niger: Sharia Law Destroys Human Rights

The deadly jihadist insurgency in Niger, a majority-Muslim but officially secular country in West Africa, remains ongoing.

This month, about 10 soldiers were killed and seven injured in a terrorist attack in Niger’s Dosso region, authorities said in a statement. A security source told Reuters that 18 soldiers were missing.

Alongside its Sahel neighbors Mali and Burkina Faso, Niger is battling an insurgency by jihadist groups linked to Al Qaeda and the Islamic State.

Terrorist groups targeting Niger include ISIS-Sahel (formerly known as ISIS-GS/Greater Sahara), Boko Haram, Islamic State-West Africa (ISIS-WA), and al-Qa’ida affiliate Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), among others.

These jihadists have committed many atrocities both in Niger and the rest of the Sahel. This includes massacres, attacks against and looting of properties, kidnappings, torture, and sexual violence, among others. According to the US State Department, they have attacked and killed many of Niger’s civilians and security forces. They have further destroyed schools and churches, and imposed restrictions based on Islamic Sharia law.

In areas of Niger now occupied by jihadists (such as the north of Tillabery Region), tens of thousands of men, women and children are deprived of fundamental human rights and even basic safety. Those who do not abide by strict Islamic law are severely punished, or even murdered.

Men, for instance, risk getting abducted if their behavior is decreed as contravening Islamic law or if they are suspected of channeling information to the authorities, according to a report by the Crisis Group:

While men tend to receive the most brutal treatment, the jihadists have placed additional constraints and burdens on women, who were already suffering from unequal treatment long before IS [Islamic State] Sahel emerged.

Meanwhile, children are unable to continue their education due to jihadi threats and violence.

Many among the rising generation of children in Tillabery – boys and girls alike – are not getting an education. As of January [2024], around one third of schools in the Tillabery region had closed their doors amid the constant threat of violence, depriving more than 70,000 children of instruction. The vast majority of these facilities are primary schools. Militants have at times burst into classrooms to intimidate teachers and pupils before damaging equipment or buildings. “Our children haven’t been to school for two years”, said a Peul woman with five children. “The terrorists whipped them, set school supplies on fire and destroyed the school. The teachers were scared and left our village.”

The US State Department notes that these groups cite their jihadist ideology as their justification for violence and their illicit economic activities, such as forced taxation.

The organization Open Doors reported that in April, 2024 jihadists began imposing a new law regarding paying jizya in villages near the Niger–Burkina Faso border in the Tillabéri region:

On 16 April, jihadists summoned people in the marketplace of La Tapoa and announced that, as of that day, all males 15 years and older who refuse to convert to Islam, are required to pay Jizya to them. Jizya is a tax, according to Islamic law, levied against non-Muslim inhabitants within Muslim states.

On 2 May, Christians began leaving their villages and are now taking refuge in Makalondi town, about 200 kilometres away. Currently around 357 Christian families have left their villages.

The law would apply to all the villages under jihadist control. According to Open Doors’ contacts, all villagers were strongly advised to convert to Islam if they want to remain living in the villages, and whoever does not want to convert to Islam must pay 50,000 CFA (83 US $) as tax. Should they pay, they are allowed to continue living in the village but will live as slaves with their families. All their property will automatically become the jihadists’. Those who do not want to convert to Islam or pay Jizya can leave the village but are not allowed to take anything with them except the clothes they are wearing.”

Niger’s population is over 28 million; the Christian population is around 69,200 (0.2% of the whole population). This small Christian community is also terrorized by jihadists. According to Open Doors,

The lack of security in the country has affected the Christian community significantly. Since Islamic militants target Christians as well as the state authorities, Christians have to be careful to keep a low profile… Women and girls are vulnerable to abduction and sexual violence from radical Islamic groups, whereas boys are more prone to being recruited into the ranks of militant groups.

Niger ranks 28 on Open Door’s World Watch List, an index which monitors Christian persecution on a global scale. The Islamic oppression is the main source of persecution in Niger, notes Open Doors:

The country’s traditional secular governance, which keeps state affairs separate from religious matters, is facing increasing pressure. Islamic groups like the Izala, a radical faction originating from Northern Nigeria, and the Tariqa, a Sufi path towards Allah, are becoming increasingly active in parts of Niger, including Maradi and Niamey. Both groups exert significant pressure on religious minorities and Muslims who they perceive as deviating from Islam.

As for Muslims, they are also forced by armed jihadists to pay punitive taxes, obey strict Sharia rules, and recruit their children into armed Islamic groups. According to the State Department’s 2022 report on religious freedom in Niger:

Armed groups reportedly conducted targeted campaigns of killing and threats against what they called ‘informants,’ including local government officials, traditional leaders, and security forces. ISIS-GS and JNIM affiliates in the northern part of Tillabéri Region reportedly continued to charge local villagers Islamic taxes (zakat), while members of terrorist organizations in the west of the Tillabéri Region reportedly burned government-funded schools and told villagers their children should not attend secular schools. Many villagers were forced to flee their homes. According to the government, as of August, at least 890 public schools – 855 primary and 35 secondary – had closed in the country’s western region, mostly in Tillabéri, because of insecurity.

Between January and July of 2021, over 420 civilians were massacred by jihadists in towns, villages, and hamlets in western Niger, reported the Human Rights Watch (HRW). Jihadists drove tens of thousands from their homes during those attacks.

Witnesses from Niger said that armed Islamic fighters entered their villages on motorcycles, killing civilians including children, and burning houses and granaries as they shouted “Allahu akbar.”

HRW noted:

Dozens of villagers said that since 2019, armed Islamists allied to the Islamic State and based in Mali increasingly imposed repressive policies on the population. They cited the groups’ declaration as haram (forbidden) smoking or selling cigarettes, consuming alcohol, listening to music, wearing certain clothing, and men mingling with women. Villagers said the armed Islamists closed schools, destroyed shops selling cigarettes, and beat people for refusing to adhere to their interpretation of Islam. They also pressured the population to provide recruits and to pay zakat, or Islamic tax, usually in the form of livestock, money, or grain.

The groups threatened and attacked villagers who rejected the demands, gave them ultimatums to leave, and looted their livestock – at times entire herds – destroyed fields and granaries, and more recently, killed farmers in their fields. An elder from the hard-hit Banibangou administrative area said armed Islamist groups had destroyed 147 granaries in his area since the start of 2021.

An elder said,

They attacked us because we refused to pay their punitive tax, but also as punishment for refusing to give our children [as recruits] to the Jihadists. Two days before the massacre, they told us to leave or be killed.

On May 12, 2021, armed Islamist fighters attacked Fantio village. A villager said:

From a distance, I saw them emerge from a wooded area near the river, then approach town. They ordered the first group of men they encountered to recite a verse of the Quran – one was a Christian, but he knew the verse, which saved him. As they moved on, they saw a disabled man – I think they targeted him because he wore a cross … he was on crutches so he couldn’t run. They wasted no time in killing him. A friend of mine fled in his brother’s car, but the jihadists caught up with him and executed him as well.

Another villager added,

One group attacked the church – I later saw the Bibles, instruments, and other church things burning – and then they attacked the school director’s house, where they burned books and notebooks. Then they shot open the lock of a shop and stole all the phone recharge cards.

The 2023 coup further complicated the security situation. On July 26, 2023 soldiers in Niger detained the country’s president, Mohamed Bazoum, at his home and declared a coup. Niger’s ambassador to the United States, Kiari Liman-Tinguiri, called on the junta to return “to reason”. The ambassador warned that if Niger collapses, the entire Sahel region could fall to jihadists. He said jihadist groups could soon “control Africa from the coast to the Mediterranean”, and thus Europe.

The continued jihad in the wider region also targets Niger’s neighboring nations including Nigeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Libya, and Mali. As a result of the jihadist insurgencies in those nations, Niger has become the main country of asylum in West Africa, hosting an estimated 700,000 forcibly displaced people, according to the UN.

Millions of people in Niger and other African nations are suffering at the hands of jihadists as they impose Sharia law in places where they have invaded and seized control. Africa is going through an existential emergency in the face of these attacks. If jihad against Africa is not defeated, the devastating consequences will affect the whole world.

Uzay Bulut is a Turkey-born journalist formerly based in Ankara.