The Sahel and Maghreb countries are facing a resurgence of terrorism in various parts of their lands, and this is perhaps not only related to some remnants of the "ISIS" organization and its affiliates, but also to those they left behind, including children, women, and a few members. Some of them were captured and put in detention camps in Syria and transferred to Iraq, while others managed to escape to Africa and settled themselves between Mali, Niger, and the Great Libyan Sahara.
The Islamic State ("ISIS") poses a threat in the Sahel and Sahara region, a hotspot where it is active, following its defeat and collapse in Syria and Iraq. Its members have begun fleeing towards Africa, a continent rich in natural resources, as a new base of their operations. The local "ISIS" affiliates like Boko Haram have already established themselves in the Libyan desert, the Horn of Africa, the Sahel, and West Africa. "ISIS" is also active in the border areas between Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, specifically in the Liptako-Gourma triangle in the central Sahel region.
The three main terrorist organizations, "ISIS", Boko Haram, and Al-Qaeda, are also competing, fighting, and battling for dominance over Africa through the Sahel, the Lake Chad Basin, Nigeria, Niger, and Cameroon. These organizations exploited the collapse of the state in Libya in 2011, which caused chaos and uncontrolled weapons spread, leaving the weapons depots that the Gaddafi regime had collected for more than forty years vulnerable to looting and smuggling.
Today, the Sahel and Maghreb countries, especially Libya, are facing attempts to restore "ISIS" potential and reactivate it in the Great Libyan Desert. This creates a serious regional and international threat, especially given the vastness of the Libyan desert and the difficulty of pursuing "ISIS" elements there, if they take refuge in the rugged Tibesti and Awainat mountains. This is compounded by the Libyan government's lack of effective control over the long borders it shares with six African countries, most of which suffering from the weakness of their central governments. Their interests intersect often with "ISIS", which is trying to find a safe haven, even among the sand dunes of the desert.
In these countries, extremist ideology has not yet been countered with another ideology, or with any alternative plan to modernize curricula and religious discourse in some places, which makes the return of "ISIS" possible if someone is found again for carrying its ideology and fighting for it.
Like other groups, "ISIS" exploited marginalized communities, particularly in impoverished and famine-stricken countries like Mali, Niger, and Chad. In the Sahara, the organization capitalized on widespread resentment against the state and local authorities, using women and children as suicide bombers. According to a study by the American University of Georgia, about 39 percent of ISIS children carried out suicide attacks.
Political Islamist groups have contributed to the expansion of "ISIS" and its affiliates, and worked to empower them as military allies, through which they achieve common goals in many areas of tension in Libya, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, where they supplied them with weapons and money, and turned a blind eye to the presence of their elements, frequently working to smuggle fighters and mercenaries into their ranks.