Hat tip to WoTR for this short overview of AQIM activity in West Africa, the catalyst being the attack on a beach resort, Grand Bassam, in the Ivory Coast:http://warontherocks.com/2016/05/bey...african-coast/

Not to overlook two earlier attacks in Bamako and Ouagadougou.

Being close to the ground, my words, the authors draw attention to:
Predominantly young men, these migrants travel to littoral West Africa to work as laborers on commercial farms or as petty traders. Abidjan and Accra possess teeming neighborhoods of foreign-born migrants, many of whom spend seven to eight months a year in these urban areas before returning to their home villages in time for the annual harvest.