Feb 07 Policy Focus from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy:

Islamist Terrorism in Northwestern Africa: A 'Thorn in the Neck' of the United States?
...Sahelian Africa as a whole is not a hotbed of Islamic radicalism. But a unique mélange of international trends and local circumstances makes the region an attractive area of operations for Islamist terrorists. Locally, political Islam has already become a vehicle of protest against undemocratic regimes, giving rise to Islamically motivated political violence in Algeria, Nigeria, and Morocco that is still simmering. The global trend of Islamic revivalism and—on the extreme end of the spectrum—the metamorphosis and spread of al-Qaeda’s ideology have exacerbated local conflicts and flavored the expression of political grievances. As these developments intersect in northwestern Africa, they facilitate terrorists’ efforts to blend with the local population....