Objectives & method
Territorial caliphate-building by extreme coercion: massacre-scale violence against communities that resist, taxation of those that submit. It fights everyone — the states, JNIM, the Azawad movements, communal militias — and grows in the seams of their conflicts, as its April 2026 seizure of the Labbezanga crossing showed.
Where it operates
Core strength sits in the Liptako-Gourma tri-border zone — the Ménaka and Ansongo areas above all — where three states' writ runs thinnest. Its April 2026 seizure of the Labbezanga border crossing on the Niger River showed the method: hold the seams between states, tax what crosses, and expand wherever JNIM, the state or the Azawad movements are busy fighting each other.
Do not merge with JNIM
Different allegiance (Islamic State vs al-Qaeda), open warfare between them since 2020, different social strategy. Any analysis or dataset that lumps them as “jihadists” misreads the war.
Elsewhere in Mali
Last reviewed2026-07-19