Observers of troubled West Africa have long worried that jihadists who have rampaged across the Sahel eye a push south to the Gulf of Guinea.

But for people living on the Niger-Benin border, this concern is already a daily reality.

“We live in fear,” said Sani Harouna, a fisherman who makes a living on the Niger River, which forms the border between the two countries.

North of the big river lies the huge semi-desert state of Niger, which according to the UN development index is the poorest country in the world.

The country is fighting two uprisings erupted by its neighbors.

One is a long-running Boko Haram campaign on the south-eastern border with Nigeria, while the other is a dynamic seven-year offensive in the south-west.

It came from Mali, where al-Qaeda and jihadists from the Islamic State group are active, and has also penetrated neighboring Burkina Faso.

To the south of the river lies Benin, one of three coastal states along with Togo and Ivory Coast, which analysts fear will be next in line.

Last month, gunmen attacked a customs post in Malanville, Benin’s closest city to Niger, killing two men.

“The terrorists are at the border and if they are pursued in Benin they will fall back to Niger,” said another fisherman, Mamane Sani Harouna.

“It’s these waters that need to be monitored – they can make it easier for terrorists to get in, and there are too many forested areas around here” that could serve as loopholes, he said.

Gaya district is part of Dosso region, which borders with Benin and Nigeria.

So far, Dosso has escaped violent attacks, and its relative safety means truckers prefer to use it as a corridor to reach Benin’s port of Cotonou rather than transit Burkina.

“There is a security challenge, the threat is real,” Assimou Abarchi, the prefect – the state’s highest official – for Gaya, told AFP.

“But so far, thank God, we’re sleeping well and waking up in good shape.”

“It’s quiet at the moment. There are only petty thieves stealing our animals and selling them to butchers,” said a Nigerian trader who crossed the bridge to sell milk in Benin.

But the corridor and the river are also potential focal points.

Officials say they are being used to provide fuel and supplies to terrorists in Mali.

“Motorcyclists sneak across from Nigeria to northern Mali and canoes involved in smuggling are equipped with powerful motors,” said an official in Gaya.

The corridor also serves as an exit for a planned pipeline for Niger’s oil, which should reach the world market via Benin next year.

During a visit to the armed forces in Dosso last week, Nigerian President Mohamed Bazoum pledged to set up a “fully equipped battalion” for the Gaya area to strengthen surveillance of the 266-kilometer border with Benin.

He urged the military to “find the right answer” to “cut off” the jihadists’ supply lines.

“Benin is a strategic partner for Niger,” he said.

“Knowing how these forces (the jihadists) are behaving and their intentions to open fronts on the other side of the border, we have an obligation to act pre-emptively,” he said.

Benin and Niger signed an agreement in July to fight “terrorism” through joint military operations and intelligence sharing.

Dosso already has a rapid deployment battalion of more than 500 men, trained by France and equipped with pickup trucks and heavy weapons.