Somali soldiers trained by U.S. special operations forces prepare for a field tactics demonstration at Baledogle, Somalia, Aug. 3, 2023. The number of people killed by Islamic militants in Somalia increased 22% in 2023, reaching a record high of 7,643. (Enrique Barcelo/U.S. Air Force)
STUTTGART, Germany — The number of killings by Islamic militants in Africa hit a record in 2023, surging 20% from the previous year as violence soared in Somalia and elsewhere, a study sponsored by the Defense Department revealed.
In all, 23,322 people were killed last year in violent attacks, up from 19,412 in 2022, the Pentagon-affiliated Africa Center for Strategic Studies said in a new report.
“This represents a near doubling in deaths since 2021,” the Jan. 29 report said.
More than 80% of the fatalities were concentrated in the Sahel region and Somalia, where U.S. forces have for years been assisting government troops in their battle against the al-Shabab terrorist group.
The situation in Somalia has been the primary focus for the Stuttgart-based U.S. Africa Command for several years. While U.S. special operators advise and train Somali ground forces, AFRICOM also carries out periodic airstrikes against al-Shabab targets.
Somalia experienced a 22% increase in fatalities stemming from Islamic militant violence in 2023, reaching a record high of 7,643. That represents a tripling of the number since 2020.
The report attributed most of the violence and fatalities to battles between al-Shabab and Somali forces.
Still, there is no indication that the effort has turned the tables on the terrorist group, which has proved resilient in its two-decade campaign to topple the fragile government in the country of roughly 18 million people.
Meanwhile, an estimated 11,643 fatalities were linked to Islamic militant groups in the Sahel, which encompasses a region that includes Burkina Faso, Mali, Togo, Benin and Niger.
The area has been marred by a series of coups in recent years, including in Niger, where about 1,000 U.S. troops are deployed at a drone base that was a focal point for counterterrorism operations in the Sahel.
But the July coup has hindered such operations because U.S. rules prohibit cooperation with militaries that topple democratic governments.
In Niger, there were just under 1,000 reported fatalities connected to Islamic militants in 2023, the report said.
Burkina Faso, another country where U.S. military cooperation has been curtailed because of a 2022 coup, experienced the most Islamic militant violence in the Sahel, with nearly 8,000 such fatalities.
One bright spot in Africa was a sharp decline in Islamic militant violence in Mozambique, where extremists have taken root in the country’s north.
In 2021, U.S. Special Operations Command Africa dispatched advisers to the country to train some of the forces involved in the battle against militants.
Northern Mozambique saw a 71% decline in violent events in 2023 after military operations pushed fighters out of their strongholds, the report said.
“The question for the coming year will be whether this progress can be sustained given the resiliency of the militants in this region,” the report said.
