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Islamic State – Sahel Province

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The Islamic State – Sahel Province [a] (ISSP), formerly known as Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (IS-GS), is an Islamist militant group adhering to the ideology of Salafi Jihadism. IS-GS was formed on 15 May 2015 as the result of a split within the militant group Al-Mourabitoun. The rift was a reaction to the adherence of one of its leaders, Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahraoui,[4] to the Islamic State. From March 2019 to 2022, IS-GS was formally part of the Islamic State – West Africa Province (ISWAP);[5] when it was also called "ISWAP-Greater Sahara".[6] In March 2022, IS declared the province autonomous, separating it from its West Africa Province[7] and naming it Islamic State – Sahel Province (ISSP).

Islamic State – Sahel Province
LeadersAdnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi †
Abdulaziz Mahwaz Al-Jamal
Dates of operation13 May 2015–present
HeadquartersNear Ménaka, Gao Region, Mali
Active regionsMali, Niger, Burkina Faso
IdeologyIslamic Statism
Size2,000–3,000[1]
Part of Islamic State
Opponents
State Opponents
Non-State Opponents
Designated as a terrorist group bySee below

History

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Al-Mourabitoun was created on 22 August 2013 after the merging of MUJAO and Al-Mulathameen.[8] On 13 May 2015, elements of Al-Mourabitoun under the leadership of Abu Walid al-Sahraoui pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.[9][10][11][12] It operated independently until 30 October 2016, when it was formally recognized by the Islamic State.[13][14][15][16]

The group's ranks increased by dozens of Malian militants and sympathizers from the Gao Region[17] near Ménaka.[18]

On 1 November 2019, gunmen killed over 50 soldiers in the 2019 Indelimane attack in the Ménaka Region of Mali.[19] A week later in Burkina Faso, gunmen stormed a convoy of buses for the Boungou miners, killing 37, although some estimate the death toll to be much higher.[20][21]

On 28 November 2019, Spanish authorities issued a warning on the possibility of a terror attack in the region against Spanish citizens visiting or working in the Saharawi refugee camps in Western Sahara.[22] Spanish authorities feared the attacks would coincide with the Spanish Día de la Constitución (December 6) celebrations.[23] Secret services warned of the risk of a jihadist attack in the Sahara region at refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria.[24] The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic denied this threat.[25] No attack happened.

On 10 December 2019, a large group of fighters belonging to the IS-GS attacked a military post in Inates, Niger,[26] killing over seventy soldiers and kidnapping others.[27] On 9 January 2020, a large group of IS-GS militants assaulted a Nigerien military base at Chinagodrar, in Niger's Tillabéri Region, killing at least 89 Nigerien soldiers.[28]

During 2021, the group carried out massacres in Niger, mainly in the regions of Tillabéri and Tahoua, killing more than 600 people.[29] The killings included the Tchoma Bangou and Zaroumdareye massacres, the March 2021 Darey-Daye massacre, the Tillia massacres and the 2021 Adab-Dab attack.

In December 2021, the French Army announced that it had killed in Niger, one of the perpetrators of the assassination of six French humanitarian workers and their Nigerien companions in the Kouré reserve in August 2020. The man is presented as Soumana Boura. The staff had identified him as leading a group of several dozen EIGS fighters, in the Gober Gourou and Firo area, in western Niger. a member of the Islamic State in the Grand Sahara (EIGS).[30]

On 11 June 2022, the group attacked the town of Seytenga in Burkina Faso, killing at least 100 civilians in a massacre.[31]

On 15 June 2022, it was announced the French military force captured Oumeya Ould Albakaye, a senior ISGS leader in Mali overnight between 11-12 June.[32]

Between 2022 and 2023, the group saw major gains in the Mali War, occupying large swarths of territory in southeastern Mali. Tidermène was captured by the group on 12 April 2023.[33]

In early April 2023, the group killed at least 44 civilians in the towns of Kourakou and Tondobi in Burkina Faso.[34]

On 21 March 2024, the group ambushed Nigerien soldiers in Tillabéri Region, Niger, killing at least 23 soldiers.[35]

Organization, forces and location

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Commanding officers

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The group was founded and headed by Adnan Abu Walid Al-Sahraoui until he was killed by a French drone strike in Mali in 2021.[36]

Al-Sahraoui may have been replaced towards the end of 2019 by a new wali, Abdoul Hakim Al-Sahraoui.[citation needed] Among his other commanders are Doundoun Chefou, Illiassou Djibo alias Petit Chafori (or Djafori) and Mohamed Ag Almouner, known as "Tinka", killed by the French Army on August 26, 2018.

Forces

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In early 2017, Marc Mémier, a researcher at the French Institute for International Relations (IFRI), estimated that the Islamic State in the Grand Sahara had a few dozen men – not counting sympathizers – mostly Malians in the region of Gao. At the end of 2015, RFI indicated that the group's workforce would total around one hundred.

According to a report from the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) at West Point, the EIGS had 425 combatants in August 2018.

Settlement area and ethnic base

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See also: Nomadic conflict and Fulani extremism
 
Map showing areas where the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara operates

The group is based in the Ménaka region.

As with other armed groups in the Sahel, jihadists or not, the ISGS is part of a largely community-based dynamic. A large part of its combatants is thus Peuls. In Mali, the latter are for the most part Nigerien nationals whom the droughts in the Sahel and the demographic surge of Zarma and Hausa peasants, which is exerted from the south to the north, have pushed on the Malian side of the border. Adnan Abu Walid Al-Sahraoui won the support of many members of this community by promising to protect them against raids and theft of cattle carried out by the Tuaregs, starting with the Dahoussahak (Idaksahak).

However, ISGS would include members from the two communities. Thus, at present, the combatants of ISGS are divided into two katibas (combatant units), one composed mainly of Daoussahak and the other of Peuls.

Analysis

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Designation as a terrorist organization

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Country Date References
  United States 23 May 2018 [37]
  United Nations 23 February 2020 [38]
  Argentina 23 February 2020 [39]
  New Zealand 23 February 2020 [40]
  Canada 2 February 2021 [41]
  Iraq ? [42]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Arabic: الدولة الاسلامية – ولاية الساحل, romanized: al-Dawlah al-Islāmīyah – Wilāyat al-Sāḥil,
    French: État islamique – Province du Sahel,
    Berber languages: Tadunt Taslamt – Tadunt Sahel

References

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  1. ^ "S/2024/556". United Nations. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
  2. ^ "IS Reveals Responsibility for Attacks in Benin, Marking Expansion of "Sahel Province" to Another Country". SITE. 15 September 2022.
  3. ^ "IS Reveals Attacks in Sokoto (Nigeria) and Tillaberi (Niger) in Naba 205 "Exclusive"". SITE. 25 October 2019.
  4. ^ "Rewards for ISIS-GS Leader Adnan Abu Walid". VOA. 10 October 2019. Archived from the original on 5 November 2019. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  5. ^ Zenn (2020), p. 6.
  6. ^ Bacon & Warner (2021), p. 80.
  7. ^ Chesnutt, Kate; Zimmerman, Katherine (2022-09-08). "The State of al Qaeda and ISIS Around the World". Critical Threats.
  8. ^ AFP (22 August 2013). "Afrique : fusion de 2 groupes djihadistes". Le Figaro (in French). Archived from the original on 28 April 2019. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  9. ^ "Le groupe El-Mourabitoune prête allégeance à l'Etat islamique". Alakhbar (in French). 13 May 2015. Archived from the original on 23 November 2015. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  10. ^ "El-Mourabitoune appelle les autres groupes jihaidstes à prêter allégeance à l'Etat islamique (Audio)". Alakhbar (in French). 13 May 2015. Archived from the original on 26 November 2015. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  11. ^ AFP (15 May 2015). "Sahel : un chef d'Al-Mourabitoune prête allégeance à l'organisation de l'État islamique". France 24 (in French). Archived from the original on 15 August 2017. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  12. ^ "Mali-Sahel: lutte de positionnement des groupes jihadistes". Radio France Internationale (in French). 6 December 2015. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  13. ^ Olivier, Mathieu (13 October 2016). "Dix ans après sa création, où en est l'État islamique en Afrique et au Maghreb ?". Jeune Afrique (in French). Archived from the original on 16 October 2016. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  14. ^ "Bel Mokhtar dément l'allégeance du groupe El-Mourabitoune à l'Etat Islamique". Alakhbar (in French). 15 May 2015. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  15. ^ AFP (15 May 2015). "Mokhtar Belmokhtar récuse l'allégeance du groupe Al-Mourabitoune à l'EI". France 24 (in French). Archived from the original on 15 August 2017. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  16. ^ "Mali: le groupe Etat islamique officialise sa présence au Sahel". Radio France Internationale (in French). 31 October 2016. Archived from the original on 1 November 2016. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  17. ^ Mémier, Marc (January 2017). AQMI et Al-Mourabitoun : le djihad sahélien réunifié? (PDF) (in French). Institut français des relations internationales. p. 54. ISBN 978-2-36567-661-8. Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 March 2017. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  18. ^ "Niger: 15 militaires tués lors d'une attaque près de la frontière malienne". Radio France Internationale (in French). 23 February 2017. Archived from the original on 26 February 2017. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  19. ^ "Militants kill 54 in attack on Mali army post, ISIS claims responsibility". NBC News. 3 November 2019. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
  20. ^ "'So many dead': Survivors describe terrifying Burkina Faso ambush". Reuters. 2019-11-08. Archived from the original on 8 November 2019. Retrieved 2019-12-12.
  21. ^ "AFP.com". AFP.com. 16 January 2012. Retrieved 2019-12-12.
  22. ^ "Spain Warns of Possible Sahara Camp Terror Attack". The New York Times. Associated Press. 28 November 2019. Archived from the original on 29 November 2019. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  23. ^ González, Miguel (28 November 2019). "Los servicios secretos alertan del riesgo de atentado yihadista contra españoles en el Sáhara". El País (in Spanish). Madrid: Prisa. Archived from the original on 28 November 2019. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  24. ^ Araluce, Gonzalo (28 November 2019). "Informes secretos alertan del riesgo de "atentado inminente" contra españoles en el Sáhara". El Español (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 28 November 2019. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  25. ^ "Exteriores alerta del riesgo de atentado contra españoles en el Sáhara". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 28 November 2019. Archived from the original on 28 November 2019. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  26. ^ "Behind the Jihadist Attack in Inates". ReliefWeb. 13 December 2019.
  27. ^ "At least 70 soldiers killed in attack on Niger military camp". France 24. 2019-12-11. Retrieved 2019-12-12.
  28. ^ Aksar, Moussa; Lewis, David; Balima, Boureima; Ross, Aaron (2020-01-11). Elgood, Giles (ed.). "Niger army base attack death toll rises to at least 89: security sources". Reuters. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  29. ^ "Gunmen kill up to 15 soldiers in southwest Niger, sources say". Reuters. 5 November 2021.
  30. ^ "Attaque de Kouré au Niger: l'armée française annonce avoir tué un membre du commando". RFI. 22 December 2021.
  31. ^ "Armed men kill at least 100 in Burkina Faso border zone - security source". Reuters. 2022-06-13. Archived from the original on 2022-06-16. Retrieved 2022-06-14.
  32. ^ Tangi Salaun; Sudip Kar-Gupta (15 June 2022). "France announces capture of senior Islamic State figure in Mali". Reuters. Retrieved 18 August 2022.
  33. ^ BBC Africa Today: Islamic State Sahel Province fighters seize commune in Mali, BBC, 2023
  34. ^ Burkina Faso: At least 44 killed in attacks Archived 2023-04-09 at the Wayback Machine, Sky News
  35. ^ "Several Nigerien soldiers killed in ambush near Burkina Faso, Mali border". France24. Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  36. ^ Ataman, Joseph (16 September 2021). "French President claims targeted killing of ISIS chief in Sahara". CNN. Retrieved 16 September 2021.
  37. ^ "Foreign Terrorist Organizations". Archived from the original on 27 February 2020. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  38. ^ "ISIL (Da'esh) & Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee / Narrative Summaries of Reasons for Listing". United Nations Security Council. United Nations. n.d. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  39. ^ "Registro Público de Personas y Entidades vinculadas a actos de Terrorismo y su Financiamiento - RePET -". Ministero de Justicia y Derechos Humanos. Presidencia de la Nación. n.d. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  40. ^ "Designated individuals and organisations" (PDF). New Zealand Police. New Zealand Government. 7 September 2021. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 September 2021. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  41. ^ "Entités terroristes inscrites". Sécurité publique Canada. Gouvernement du Canada. 25 June 2021. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  42. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 31 May 2021. Retrieved 1 October 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

Works cited

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Further reading

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