I'm John Batchel with my good colleagues, Caleb Weiss and Bill Rajio, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies,

and Caleb reporting from Africa of a scale-like Operation Overlord, D-Day, June 6th, many nationalities,

many different kinds of arms makers come together to land together against the German army,

once upon a time. Now it looks like J&I,

the Al-Qaeda representative, have mounted a comparable campaign in Mali, but we look in on other

countries that have been part of the conversation in West Africa for some time.

Caleb, you mentioned Burkina Faso. I'm interested in Niger, where the U.S.

evacuated its basis some time ago.

And Niger and Burkina Faso, are they both more vulnerable than before, or do they have

different circumstances that would prevent a Mali takeover?

I think Niger is a little bit more secure, but that's relative.

Now, keep in mind, Janem also operates in Niger, mainly in the north and the northeast, sort of the desert areas.

It does maintain a presence somewhere near Niamme, but for the most part, Niger is more the turf of the Islamic States Sahel province, which we didn't even talk about in this offensive.

They're also taking advantage of the chaos in Mali right now, and they have a little fiefdom in northern Mali in what's called the Minika region, and they control most of that region.

But with the chaos happening right now,

when the Russian lines folding,

they're taking advantage of that

and consolidating their territory in northern Mali.

Now, again, on the other side of that border is Niger,

where IS, the Hell Province,

is the sort of predominant group in and around Niam.

So, yes, JAN is there, but as of right now, I think Burkina and Mali is more of, is more threatened by Jain M than Nizier.

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