The Alliance of Sahel States (AES)—linking Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso—has entered a new phase of joint military coordination as shared drone operations and intelligence networks converge on militant strongholds across Mali’s northeast.

Mauritania is warning that Africa’s security landscape is shifting from ideological insurgencies to profit-driven “religious-front criminal enterprises,” describing how jihadist networks have merged with organized crime.

Nearly 4 million people are now displaced across the Sahel, the UN warns, as violence and collapsing services escalate a regional humanitarian crisis.