OVERVIEW

JNIM flag

Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) is a terrorist group based in Mali and active across much of West Africa, including parts of Burkina Faso and Niger. It formed in March 2017, when four Mali-based extremist groups—Ansar al-Din, al-Murabitun, the Macina Liberation Front (MLF), and the Sahara Emirate subgroup of al-Qa‘ida in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)—announced that they had merged, formalizing cooperation among them. The leader of JNIM, Iyad ag Ghali, pledged the group’s allegiance to the amir of AQIM, to the amir of al-Qa‘ida, and to the leader of the Taliban.

JNIM is a Salafi-Jihadist organization that aligns itself with al-Qa‘ida’s global jihadist ideology and exploits local divisions and grievances to grow its support in the region. The group seeks to build a Salafi-Islamist state in West Africa and to expel Western influences from the region. Ghali has stated that JNIM’s strategy is to expand its presence across West Africa and train militants to fight against the group’s enemies while appeasing local communities by giving them material resources and signing local agreements. JNIM regularly attacks French, multinational, and local security forces in West Africa, as well as local and foreign civilians in the region.

JNIM exploits a lack of economic opportunities as well as ethnic and social divisions among the populace in northern and central Mali and neighboring regions to facilitate recruitment and build its influence. It funds itself by ransoming captives, taxing locals, smuggling weapons, and extorting human and drug traffickers.

FOREIGN TERRORIST GROUP DESIGNATION
The US State Department designated JNIM as a foreign terrorist organization in 2018. In 2013 the US designated Ghali as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.

KEY LEADERS

NOTABLE ATTACKS