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Context. Not headlines.
Equipment Catalogue · Shared across conflicts

IEDs (capability record)

Recognition context, not a stat sheet. The catalogue covers major publicly documented systems relevant to the conflicts Vigil covers — not an exhaustive order of battle. No quantities, availability or current allocations are recorded. See the methodology.
IED / explosive threat · capability record

IEDs (capability record)

A capability-level record only: roadside and vehicle-borne bombs are the instrument that made Mali’s roads the front line. This record deliberately contains no technical detail.

FieldedEvidence: Confirmed
Silhouette · not to scale

Record

FamilyIED threat
OriginImprovised (in-theatre)
EraSystematic use since 2013; the war’s leading killer of soldiers and peacekeepers
Appears inMali · the wider Sahel

Conflict relevance

This is the catalogue's single record for this system. It is relevant to the module below; each module's Force Atlas shows how it is used there.

Sahel · Force Atlas

Operators

JNIM · Primary operatorIslamic State Sahel Province · Secondary operator

Battlefield role

Road denial and attrition: IEDs impose the convoy problem that shapes every campaign — they made MINUSMA the UN’s deadliest mission, strangle corridor traffic, and killed the defence minister in the April 2026 Kati bombing.

Strengths

Cheap denial of expensive mobility; ties down route-clearance capability the government has little of.

Limitations

Indiscriminate by nature — civilian vehicles and buses are routine victims, at direct cost to the groups’ local standing.

Campaign relevance

Derived: a participant organisation in these campaigns carries a typed equipment association with this system. That is not the same as documented use of the system in the campaign itself.

  • The encirclement of Djibo Since February 2022

    via JNIM — Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (Documented, high confidence)

  • JNIM fuel blockade campaign Declared September 2025; eased and reimposed since

    via JNIM — Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (Documented, high confidence)

  • FLA–JNIM offensives, 2026 April 2026 – present

    via JNIM — Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (Documented, high confidence); Islamic State Sahel Province (Documented, moderate confidence)

  • Pressure in Tillabéri Documented pattern since 2025

    via Islamic State Sahel Province (Documented, moderate confidence); JNIM — Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (Documented, high confidence)

Documented formations

PartialConfidence: HighSources: UN Security Council and Panel of Experts reporting · ACLED conflict data & analysis · Established international media reportingMethodologyCorrections

Assessed as of2026-07Last reviewed2026-07-15