How Al -Qaeda branch became one of the most armed groups in Africa

The collective base is affiliated with the Nasr al -Islam, Wall Mosaimin (JNIM) is the main group behind an increase in the armed jihadist attacks sweeping many West African countries, especially Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

On July 1, the group said it carried out a major coordinated attack on seven Military sites in western Mali, including near the border with Senegal and Mauritania.

There is increased concern about the impact of Jinim on the stability of the region.

Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have struggled to contain violence – this is one of the factors that contributed to many military coups in the three coast countries over the past five years.

But like the civil governments they replaced, festivals seem unable to stop the increasing jihadist threat, especially from JNIM.

JNIM has become one of the bloody African jihadist groups in just a few years.

It was formed in Mali in 2017, a coalition of five jihadist militant groups:

• Support for you
• Makina Katibat
• Mourabiton
• Ansar al-visalam
• Desert branch Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb

These groups began to cooperate after the French army pushed several jihadist and separatist organizations that were operating in northern Mali in 2012. In the end, the group leaders met to create Geneim.

In recent years, they have expanded geographically, and created new areas of operation.

Jinim Iyad Ghali, a former financial diplomat belonging to the ethnic Tuareg group. He was at the head of the Tuareg uprising against the financial government in 2012, which sought to establish an independent state of the Tuareg people named Azawad. Deputy leader Amadou Kova of the Volani community.

Analysts believe that the central leadership helps direct the local branches operating throughout the Sahel region in West Africa.

Although it is difficult to know the number of fighters who are in the ranks of JNIM, or the number of recently recruited, experts suggest that there may be several thousand – most of them young and children who lack other economic opportunities in one of the poorest regions in the world.

The group rejects the authority of Sahel governments, and seeks to impose its strict interpretation of Islam and Sharia in the areas where it works.

Analysts say that in some areas, it is known that JNIM imposes strict dress symbols, the implementation of the embargo against music and smoking, and the men asked the cultivation of beards and prevent women from being in public places alone.

Evan Goishawa, the first researcher at the Bon International Center for Conflict Studies.

“These practices are clearly separated from firm practices and are certainly not very popular,” he says.

“But whether it is attractive or not, it also depends on what the state can offer, and there was a lot of disappointment in what the state is doing in the past years.”

The disappointment of the secular justice system can submit a submitted by Sharia courts that resume some.

After its beginnings in the center and northern Mali, Jnim sought its arrival quickly. While its strongholds are in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, JNIM also attacks in Benin, Togo, at one point from Ivory Coast.

It now operates throughout Mali and 11 from the 13th Burkina Faso areas, according to the global initiative against national organized crime (GI-TOC), which is the Civil Society Organization.

Last year, Burkina Faso became the center of the group’s activities – mostly the northern and eastern border regions. This, partly, due to the divisions and splits in the country in the country, as well as the extent to which militants in local communities include, according to Peffle Ochyng, the chief analyst for the risk of monitoring the security consulting company.

“JNIM has the ability to include local communities or be able to use local grievances as a way to employ or win sympathy for their case,” she told the BBC.

In recent months, violent incidents in Burkina Faso have increased to previously invisible levels, according to the analysis of the BBC Ribing jihad media team. The main attacks were also carried out recently in Mali, Niger and Benin.

In the first half of 2025, JNIM said it had carried out more than 280 attacks in Burkina Faso – doubling the number for the same period in 2024, according to the data verified by the BBC.

The group claimed that it has killed nearly 1,000 people throughout the coast since April, most of them are members of the security force or militia fighting alongside government forces, according to BBC monitoring data.

Nearly 800 of these were in Burkina Faso alone. The losses in Mali were higher (117) and two boys (74).

“The frequency of the attacks in June has not heard of it yet,” says Mr. Joishawa. “They really climbed their activities in the past weeks.”

MS ochning explains that gunmen use a variety of tactics designed to cause maximum disorder.

“They are planting consuming packages (improvised explosive devices) on the main roads, and they have long -term capabilities.

“They (also) are targeting the security forces in the military bases, so many of their weapons come from this. They also attacked civilians – in cases where societies are seen as cooperation with the government.”

Starlink – a company owned by Elon Musk, which provides satellite internet – has been exploited by groups such as JNIM to enhance its capabilities, according to a recent report by Gi -Toc.

The company provides a high -speed internet as regular or unreliable mobile networks are not available.

Armed groups run away Starlink devices to the country along firm smuggled roads, says G-Toch.

“Starlink has made it easier for (militant groups) planning and carrying out attacks, participating in intelligence, organizing members, implementing financial transactions and maintaining communications with its leaders even during the active conflict,” an analyst from Gi-Toc told the BBC in Africa.

BBC Starlink called to comment.

The group has multiple sources of income.

At one time in Mali, the money was collected by kidnapping foreigners for the ransom, but a few of them are still in the country due to the deterioration of the security situation.

Cutture reshaping is now a major source of income, according to the analysis of the Gi-Toc. They did not want his name because he could risk their safety in Mali.

The analyst said: “Mali is a great source of livestock, so it is easy for them to steal and sell animals.”

GI-TOC research shows that in only one year in one area of ​​Mali, JNIM has achieved $ 770,000 (570,000 pounds) of livestock. Based on this number, JNIM can earn millions of dollars from theft of livestock.

Jnim also imposes different taxes, according to experts.

“They impose gold, but they impose on anything mainly on anything that passes through their lands, whether it is listed goods or illegal goods,” says Gi-Toc.

“There can be a kind of extortion from the tax, as Jnim tells citizens that they need to pay it for protection.”

It is also known that the gunmen create the siege, as people must pay to leave and enter the area, according to Ms. Oching.

The armed forces in France on the ground have been supporting the government in Mali for nearly a decade – with more than 4000 soldiers stationed throughout the fighting groups in the Sahel region, which continued to form Jinim, as well as the Islamic State in the Great Desert.

Although they achieved some initial success in 2013 and 2014, as the lands recovered from the militants and killed many leaders, this did not stop the growth of JNIM after its formation.

“The anti-rebellion efforts have failed so far because of this idea that JNIM can be overpowered militarily, but only through negotiation, the group will end,” the Gi-Toc analyst suggested.

In 2014, the coastal countries gathered together to form the G5 Sahael business band, a group of international forces with 5,000. However, over the past two years, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have withdrawn, undermining the work of the work group to treat the rebellion.

Minusma, the United Nations peacekeeping force-although it was not an effort to fight the rebellion-has been in Mali for a decade to support efforts, but it left the country at the end of 2024.

Military coups took place in Mali in 2020 and 2021, Burkina Faso in 2022 and Niger in 2023.

Weak governance in the shadow of the military plane in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger later allowed militant groups such as JNIM to prosper, according to analysts.

These festivals were fast to inform the French forces with departure, and replaced them with Russian support and a common force formed by the three Sahila states.

Although the Russian paramilitary group has completely withdrawn its forces from Mali, the African Corps, a Kurdish -controlled semi -control group, will remain valid.

In Burkina Faso, a “volunteer” army, which was launched in 2020 before the military seizure, is one of the strategy that is used to fight the militants. The leader of the military council, Ibrahim Traore, said he wanted to employ 50,000 fighters.

But experts say that many of these volunteers are enlightened by force. Insufficient training means that they often suffer from severe losses. It is also a target of JNIM attacks.

Burkina Faso and Mali have also accused human rights organizations to commit atrocities against civilians, especially ethnic fiannis. The Human Rights Group says that the government is often confused by a Fulani society with Islamic armed groups, which has strengthened peace efforts.

Between January 2024 and March 2025, the military government and their Russian allies were responsible for 1486 civilian victims in Mali, according to Gi-Toc.

This severe violence against civilians has anger at the government, which led to more employment in JNIM.