In the Sahel region, the digital realm has become a critical front in the fight against violent extremism. While armed groups have long been active on the ground, social media and messaging apps are now central to how they recruit, mobilise, and finance their operations. Recent discussions at the TikTok Safety Summit in Dakar highlighted troubling new trends: monetary recruitment incentives, short-form video manipulation, and hybrid criminal-extremist networks.

The Sahel region, encompassing countries like Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, has become a global epicentre of violent extremism. As mobile phone use and internet penetration rise across Africa, radical groups are increasingly leveraging online platforms not just for communication, but as a critical operational and ideological domain. These raise urgent questions about how to effectively prevent radicalisation online in the region.