The United States Africa Command has said that the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda terrorist groups were gradually taking over the West African region after being displaced in Syria and Iraq.

Commander of the US Special Operations Command, Africa, Maj. Gen. Dagvin Anderson, noted that the extremist groups had begun deploying strategies to re-establish themselves in the region and expand further in the continent without drawing attention.

Speaking during a virtual media briefing with journalists on Tuesday, the commander disclosed that the Al-Qaeda  had expanded in Mali, and had moved into northern Burkina Faso, where they attacked infrastructure, took out local governance and security forces, and currently controlling the local economy and exerting control over the population.

He said, “We are seeing them continue to move further south in Burkina Faso towards those littoral nations in the Gulf of Guinea, and also further west towards Senegal and West Africa. So, that’s concerning to us as we watch them continue to move throughout the region.”

Anderson observed that some aggrieved local terrorist groups were being galvanised into a larger ideology and movement, stressing that al-Shabaab, an affiliate of Al-Qaeda , was already instigating instability in Somalia in order to destabilise the horn of Africa.

He stated that the extremist group was exploiting the humanitarian crisis in the Sahel to gain deeper roots in the region and in West Africa with Islamic State, West Africa and Grand Sahara.