Nigeria’s Minister of Defence, Mr Christopher Musa, says the capture of a key Malian town by rebels poses a threat to West Africa that requires foreign intervention to prevent the insurgency from spreading.
A series of coordinated attacks by militants in late April left Mali’s Defence Minister dead and forced Malian and Russian mercenary forces to withdraw from the northeastern stronghold of Kidal.
Mr Musa, a retired army general, said in an interview with Bloomberg that the international community must come together to deal with the insurgents before they wreak havoc on the region.
The deteriorating situation in Mali may trigger a wider regional crisis, the defence minister said.
His admittance comes as the border region of Nigeria, Benin and Niger on the southern edge of the Sahel region is becoming a new stronghold for jihadists, as militants turn forests and pastoral networks in West Africa into bases for recruitment and international attacks.
“If they allow them to get any foothold in Mali, completely, they are not stopping there,” he warned.
He called for a joint campaign style like that of the United States against the Islamic State in Syria as a way to root out terrorists in West Africa.
General Musa noted that the collapse of states across the region has been the main driver of arms proliferation, with coastal West African states, including Ghana and Togo, becoming increasingly vulnerable.
He cited the fall of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 as a turning point that released vast stockpiles of weapons into circulation, a problem compounded by ongoing instability in Sudan.
The combined crises have created an open corridor across the Sahel, allowing small arms, light weapons and ammunition to flow largely unchecked.
He added that this has worsened due to weak border controls and the ease of movement across the region.
Attacks in Nigeria have also risen, with data from the website of the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED), a conflict-monitoring group, affirming that the number of suicide bombings in Nigeria by March already matched the annual average over the past six years.
The Nigerian military has also been dealt a blow to its military bases and senior figures targeted. In April, Brigadier-General Oseni Omoh Braimah was killed when Islamist fighters attacked a base in Borno State.
The minister said disruptions linked to global conflicts, including the war in Ukraine, as well as the ongoing war in Iran, have made it harder to source weapons even when funding is available. To meet its defence goals, Nigeria is stepping up efforts to build domestic arms-manufacturing capacity.