The Group for Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), al Qaeda’s West African branch, claimed responsibility for a coordinated assault in Mali’s capital city of Bamako yesterday. The attack comes as JNIM continues to push further south within Mali, threatening the stability of Interim President Assimi Goita’s military regime.
The photos act as a representation of JNIM’s training programs across the Sahel.
In Mali and Mozambique, the Islamic State’s men are putting guns away and engaging with locals to help sensitize communities to its ideology and garner public support. In doing so, this highlights the extent of its control and/or influence.
Abu Yasir al-Jaza’iri, an Algerian ideologue in al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, offers the group’s harshest rebuke of the Islamic State to date.
Jeff Woodke, who spent over six years captive in the Sahel, and Olivier Dubois, who spent almost two years as a hostage, were finally freed from the clutches of al-Qaeda’s men in the Sahel. The United States has denied paying a ransom.
Host Bill Roggio is joined again by (semi-official?) co-host Caleb Weiss to discuss Jihadi control in Africa. In the last several years, Jihadists have moved toward central and southern Mali and are now threatening Bamako, the capital of Mali. In Burkina Faso, Jihadis control around 40% of the country. Bill and Caleb walk through past and present Jihadi attacks, offenses, and operations.
German national Jorg Lange was finally freed after being held captive by Islamic State militants in the Sahel since 2018.
The two claims of responsibility now confirms that both al Qaeda and the Islamic State are active inside the small West African country.
Almost 30 people have been killed in a series of jihadist attacks – many of which happened near simultaneously – across northern Togo over the last few days.
At least three Italians, one Polish citizen, and one American have been kidnapped in the Sahel over the last two months. At least five other Westerners remain in captivity in the region – all of which are held by jihadist groups.
Host Bill Roggio is joined by two Long War Journal regulars, Caleb Weiss and Andrew Tobin, to give listeners an update on what’s happening on the ground in Africa from the Sahel — including that more than 400 Malians have been slaughtered in under one month — to “elections” and Shabaab attacks in Somalia.
Around 400 civilians, mainly from a small ethnic group in northern Mali’s rural border areas near Niger, have been killed by the Islamic State since March 8.
Bill Roggio is joined by Edmund Fitton-Brown, Coordinator of the United Nations Security Council Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team, to discuss the findings from his team’s latest report on the statuses of ISIS and al-Qaeda.
In a recent statement released online, Jamaat Ansar al Muslimeen, better known as Ansaru, confirmed it maintains its allegiance to al Qaeda after reportedly re-pledging allegiance to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in 2020.
As violence continues to spread across the Sahel, particularly in Burkina Faso, the violence is now seeping into the states of Ivory Coast, Togo, and Benin.
Local Malian sources report that the emir of Katibat Gourma, a sub-unit of Al Qaeda’s Group for Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), was killed in a French operation in northern Mali yesterday. France has confirmed it targeted Katibat Gourma, but the death of its emir is not yet confirmed.
The photo offers a rare look into jihadist governance in the Sahel, in which jihadists loyal to both al Qaeda and the Islamic State wield both direct and indirect control over many rural areas.
Almost 300 people have been killed in a series of mass killings in Niger and on a military position inside Mali. The Islamic State has officially claimed just one of the attacks, but it is believed to have carried out all of the massacres.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has sent a message of support to its fellow al Qaeda branch for recently killing five French soldiers.
While JNIM has not claimed the assault, its Katibat Macina is widely suspected of perpetrating the attack. This comes after sustained operations against it in the area last month.
Two recently released booklets by the al Qaeda group are likely meant to assuage tensions both within and outside its organization.
Over the last month, the jihadist group has killed at least 174 Nigerien soldiers in three separate attacks.
The large video details several major Islamic State operations inside the Sahel over the last few years.
The Islamic State continues to make inroads in the Sahel, conducting several high-profile raids in the border region between Mali and Niger.
Both groups have claimed deadly assaults in Burkina Faso, playing into the already perilous security situation in the country.
Two leaders of al Qaeda’s Group for Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), a Moroccan national and a local Malian, were designated as terrorists today.
The Islamic State’s men in the Sahel have claimed a recent IED on US troops in Niger, as well as downing a French helicopter and assassinating a Tuareg militia member in Mali.
Al Qaeda’s branch in Mali attacked a UN base earlier today, killing at least ten peacekeepers from Chad. The group says that the assault was part of Ayman al-Zawahiri’s global campaign, which rejects the “normalization” of Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also visited Chad today.
Rising communal violence in both northern and central Mali further weakens the already fragile state, which in turn, further helps jihadists exploit these problems for their own gain.
The claim, if it is confirmed, marks the first Islamic State attack in the Sahel.