Militants Take Cover Amid Elephants, Lions in West Africa’s National Parks
KAOBAGOU, Benin—Gunmen pulled 18 villagers from their homes during a night raid this spring, shooting some and slitting the throats of the rest. They wedged hand grenades under the bodies, laying a trap for those who would discover the grisly scene. Two more villagers were later killed when they moved the corpses and triggered the explosives.
By then, the attackers were hiding in nearby Pendjari National Park, a refuge for thousands of elephants, herds of antelope, the last few West African cheetahs and, increasingly, Islamist militants. Pendjari and two adjacent national parks comprise West Africa’s largest surviving protected wilderness—4.2 million acres spread across remote areas of Benin, Niger and Burkina Faso. The expanse of emerald-green savannah, jagged cliffs and stands of ancient baobab trees has also become the latest battlefield pitting the U.S.
and its allies against al Qaeda and Islamic State fighters. Militants carried out 71 killings, kidnappings and other attacks in Benin in the first half of this year, compared with five in 2021, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, a U.S.-based nonprofit monitoring service, and the Pentagon’s Africa Center for Strategic Studies. Most of the violence took place inside the parks or nearby.
Washington is increasingly worried the Islamist insurgency that has engulfed Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger will undermine Benin and other relatively prosperous, pro-Western states along the Gulf of Guinea. U.S. Special Forces are stationed in Benin to gather intelligence and advise the local military on counterinsurgency operations.
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