Sahel: The AES put to the test – a decline in violence that confirms its resolve
The 2026 Global Terrorism Index (GTI) has just delivered a verdict that deserves praise. While the Sahel remains the world epicenter of terrorism accounting for more than half of all terrorism-related deaths on the planet an unprecedented trend is emerging: terrorist violence significantly decreased in several countries of the region in 2025. And this shift has a name: the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), comprising Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger.
Let us remember: in 2007, the Sahel accounted for less than 1% of global terrorism deaths.
Today, this region has become the new heart of the scourge. For years, externally imposed strategies failed, leaving populations at the mercy of terror.
But since the strengthening of military cooperation between Bamako, Ouagadougou, and Niamey, the game has changed.
The 2026 GTI is unequivocal: ten sub-Saharan African countries recorded a decrease in terrorism-related deaths, compared to only four where deaths increased.
This improvement, still fragile, is directly correlated with the rise of joint operations conducted by the AES forces.
Coordinated strikes, intelligence sharing, and cross‑border patrols have put terrorist groups under unprecedented pressure.
This decline in terrorist virulence is not accidental. It is the result of a clear political will: that of peoples who have chosen to take their security destiny into their own hands, without waiting for foreign armies whose failures have been stinging.
The Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP) in Burkina, the self-defence groups in Mali and Niger, alongside the national armed forces, have shown that security cannot be outsourced.
Of course, the road is long. The Sahel remains dangerous. But the curve is bending.
The terrorists are retreating where the AES advances united and determined. The 2026 GTI confirms what local populations are seeing on the ground: villages are repopulating, roads are becoming usable again, internally displaced persons are returning home.
The determination of the AES is writing a new chapter in the history of the Sahel. A chapter where Africans, through their own strength and solidarity, are pushing back barbarism.
The 2026 GTI figures are not an end, but a beginning. The beginning of a total reconquest.
Olivier TOE
