Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims-JNIM) is a coalition of Salafi-jihadist insurgent groups operating in the Sahel region of sub-Saharan Africa. JNIM is an al Qaeda-affiliated Salafi-jihadist insurgent organization that seeks to replace established state authority with a conservative interpretation of Islamic law. Attacks on security forces and violence against civilians by JNIM are both likely to continue as insurgent violence inflames community tensions and political dynamics between Sahelian states and international partners impede a comprehensive pathway to peace. One analysis found that Katibat Macina militants targeted civilians in approximately 33 percent of attacks. The World Christian Database transforms current statistics on religion into a real-time analysis tool that takes just minutes to perform even detailed research. In the last few centuries more radical groups, such as the Wahabis and Salafis, have accepted violence even against other confessing Muslims who behaved in ways they deemed idolatrous. Several contemporary Islamic movements have encouraged political pluralism and even acceptance of religious diversity. Historically, Islam has envisioned the unity of civil and religious life under the all-encompassing guidance of Islamic law, known as Sharia. Katibat Macina divides its territory into administrative units, each called a markaz (center), with a military leader, a shura advisory council, and a sharia qadi (judge).

In September 2019, after an improvised explosive device (IED) meant for French forces detonated when struck by a civilian transport, JNIM issued an apology and claimed that the incident would be handled according to sharia. JNIM constituent groups have employed a strategy of “pastoralist populism” by operationalizing local conflicts, including ethnic divisions, to appeal to rural communities and further JNIM’s objectives. JNIM is not a single organization but a coalition of multiple independent Salafi-jihadist groups with their own histories and identities, including Ansar Dine, Katibat Macina, al-Mourabitoun, and the Sahara branch of AQIM. In some JNIM-controlled areas of central Mali, the organization has demanded that civilians accept jihadist governance, relocate to non-jihadist zones, or face violence. Headed by Amadou Kouffa, an ethnic Peul, Katibat Macina has successfully recruited young Peul civilians by animating broader concerns around land rights and Peul self-defense. Amadou Kouffa, emir of Katibat Macina, previously served as an Ansar Dine commander during the group’s 2013 operations in Mali before assuming leadership of Katibat Macina. The leader of each markaz serves on Katibat Macina’s central shura council, which is led by Amadou Kouffa, and senior commanders receive reports on the actions taken within each markaz. While this leadership structure exists in principle, the cohesiveness of Katibat Macina’s hierarchy is likely dictated by factors like local conflict conditions and the bureaucratic choices of individual leaders.

Katibat Macina’s name, for example, is a rhetorical callback to the Macina Empire, a historical Peul jihad state located in modern-day Mali. Notable recent examples include a 2018 suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (SVBIED) attack on a base of the G5 Sahel, a regional counterterrorism force, in Sévaré, Mali. Additionally, Kouffa has attempted to recruit broader swaths of the regional Peul community, including by speaking Fulfulde in one 2018 video to call for “Peul in every place, in Senegal, in Mali, in Niger . Department of Justice (DOJ) for his role in orchestrating a 2016 attack in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, that killed 49 people, including one U.S. There are at least five examples of operational coordination between JNIM and ISGS, dating back to November 2017. For example, while ISGS claimed the May 2019 ambush in Tongo Tongo, Niger, that left multiple Nigerien and U.S. This group reportedly included Mimi Ould Baba, who was charged by the U.S. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. Unlike religions with Judeo-Christian origins, the Church of Scientology has no set dogma concerning God that it imposes on its members. Kidnappings like these are likely to continue, as they provide JNIM with a lucrative avenue to obtain currency, bolster fighter numbers, and demonstrate its commitment to imprisoned members.

The status of some JNIM constituents like al-Mourabitoun and AQIM’s Sahara branch is currently unclear, with senior leaders either having been killed or incarcerated. The operations of these groups have likely been incorporated into other JNIM constituents like Ansar Dine, consolidating the conglomerate into a smaller number of entities. I like some kinds of it. Talking with them I realized how many people, like me, had run away from hard conversations. The clothing and the attire remains like jeans, shirts and t-shirts. Over the last several hundred years there has been tremendous growth in scientific understanding of the world in such fields as biology, astronomy, physics, and geology. Most recently, the growth of extremist movements such as Islamism, the writings of intellectuals such as Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966), and the emergence of terrorist networks such as al-Qaeda (lit., “the base”) have served to make the use of violence more widely acceptable.