Niger junta orders ‘general mobilisation’ in fight against jihadists

Submission statement: the Nigerien government has decreeted a general mobilization of the population in an attempt to curb the spread of jihadist insurgents, whose attacks have killed an estimated 2,000 people in 2025, a sharp increase over past years of conflict.

Located in the highly unstable Sahel region, Niger has been ruled by the military since a coup in 2023 that ousted the pro-West civilian government and replaced it with a pro-Russia junta, alongside Mali and Burkina Faso, also affected by jihadist insurgencies and with whom Niger formed the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), withdrew from ECOWAS and the ICC, and turned away from Western and regional partners towards Russia, Turkey and the Emirates for their security needs.

The "general mobilization" will allow the military to commandeer at will "individuals, goods and services" for the "defense of the vital interests of the nation", and will pave the way for a general conscription to bolster the army's manpower on the ground. Burkina Faso had edicted a similar measure in 2023, which opponents of the junta said targeted critics of Ibrahim Traoré: magistrates, journalists or protesters were thus sent to the frontlines following their arrest.

Niger is confronted to a double crisis: a surge in banditry in the country's southwest, along the border with Nigeria, and a jihadist insurgency by two rival groups in the northwest: ISIS-GS and Al-Qaeda affiliate JNIM, who notably escalated the conflict in Mali in the second half of 2025, enforcing a semi-successful fuel blockade against large cities.

Niger's move points to another escalation in the underreported crisis in the Sahel, where nearly 60 million people are directly threatened by a jihadist takeover, in a particularly poor region extremely vulnerable to climate change and mass displacement.