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2026-10-17 Terror Networks
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Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger: deadly clashes between rival factions of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in the Sahel
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[TV5Monde] For several weeks, unprecedented clashes have pitted the Sahelian branches of the Islamic State (IS) and Al-Qaeda (JNIM) jihadists against each other in the border area straddling Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. These battles have reached an unprecedented level of violence, with hundreds of deaths claimed by both sides.
According to Wamaps, a collective of West African journalists, the latest fighting between JNIM, Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (or Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims), and the Islamic State in the Sahel (ISF) broke out on October 9 in the tri-border area, between the Malian district of Tessit, west of Ménaka, and the northern Burkinabe towns of Arbinda and Tin-Akoff. The first group is affiliated with Al-Qaeda, while the second, as its name suggests, is linked to the Islamic State.
According to a statement released by Amaq, the Islamic State's propaganda agency, ISIS killed approximately 400 JNIM members during fierce fighting in Oudalan province, northern Burkina Faso, also inflicting significant losses on them in terms of weapons and motorcycles. "Several leaders" were reportedly killed. This information has not been confirmed by independent sources.
According to the same source, the fighting began on October 9 in the village of Ganadaouri, where ISIS militants reportedly repelled a large-scale offensive by JNIM. The clashes are said to have lasted about an hour and a half.
NEW FIGHTING IN THE TRI-BORDER AREA
The two groups, which covet the same geographical spaces and seek to control the same routes and local populations, have been clashing regularly since 2019. A rivalry which also reveals their constant expansion in the Sahel, difficult for the military governments in these three countries which form the AES (Alliance of Sahel States).
"If this toll is confirmed, it will be the deadliest battle ever recorded between the two groups," Héni Nsaibia, an analyst at the NGO Acled, which specializes in collecting and analyzing data on armed conflicts around the world, told AFP.
From 2019 to September 2026, the two groups clashed in "more than 320 battles" which resulted in "around 2,200 deaths", Héni Nsaibia points out.
On September 1st, JNIM and ISIS clashed in Mali near N'Daki, in the Timbuktu region, on the border with Burkina Faso. ISIS gained the upper hand, killing around a hundred JNIM fighters, including a high-ranking commander. These clashes followed the killing, on August 17th by JNIM, of ISIS leader Abou Zeid and commander Saad.
But as the security monitoring platform Sahel Watch explains, "this rivalry is neither linear nor uniform: it has phases of open confrontations, periods of tense coexistence and more or less stable local arrangements".
In Mali, the recent evolution of this competition takes place in an environment transformed by the withdrawal of international forces, the rise in power of the Malian Armed Forces (FAMa) supported by Russian partners, the recomposition of armed groups signatory to the Algiers Agreement and the geographical extension of violence towards Niger, Burkina Faso and coastal countries, explains Sahel Watch.
FROM MALI TO NIGERIA
Long confined to Mali and Burkina Faso, the clashes have spread in recent months to western Niger and even northwestern Nigeria, according to Héni Nsaibia of Acled.
From its Malian stronghold of Ménaka, ISIS has extended its influence to the Nigerien regions of Tahoua, Dosso and Maradi, as far as the borders of Nigeria, facilitating the transfer of fighters, equipment and skills with ISWAP, the branch of the Islamic State active in the Lake Chad Basin, according to the Soufan Center study.
TWO DIFFERENT VISIONS OF JIHAD
Behind their rivalry lie two visions of jihad. According to FIDES, the news agency of the Pontifical Mission Societies, JNIM adopts a relatively pragmatic approach and is rooted in local realities. It primarily targets state institutions and their symbols, negotiates with local elites, and, in the areas under its control, imposes a relatively flexible system of governance based on instruments such as zakat (Islamic ritual almsgiving), dispute mediation, and corrective sanctions, rather than exemplary public punishments. It also tends to avoid practices such as public beheadings and stonings, particularly in order to maintain a degree of consensus among the population.
The ISIS adopts a more rigorous and transnational line, not hesitating to target all those who oppose its authority as part of its project for a global caliphate, explains Hasret Kargin, a researcher specializing in the Sahel, to AFP.
These "persistent ideological and strategic tensions" between the two groups are reflected in "the limited number of defections of JNIM members who have gone to join ISIS," according to the UN experts' report. In July, JNIM claimed responsibility for killing one of its commanders who had defected to ISIS.
But despite the heavy losses attributed to it by the Islamic State, JNIM remains "the main terrorist threat" in the Sahel, according to UN experts, who estimate its numbers at between "7,000 and 8,000 fighters" against "2,000 members" of ISIS.
"Numerous reports indicate that JNIM has redeployed significant reinforcements to the area from other regions. Considering the total number of its fighters in the Sahel and its strength compared to that of ISIS, the group will also launch violent counter-attacks in the coming days," predicts Hasret Kargin.
Alongside the clash between the two groups, both continue to fight the security forces of the three Sahel countries. It is the local populations who pay the heaviest price, exposed to violence perpetrated by all parties to the conflict.
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Posted by badanov 2026-10-17 00:00||
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