The Islamic State – Sahel Province (ISSP) , formerly known as Islamic State in the Greater Sahara ( IS-GS ), is an Islamist militant group adhering to the ideology of Salafi Jihadism . IS-GS was formed on 15 May 2015 as the result of a split within the militant group Al-Mourabitoun . The rift was a reaction to the adherence of one of its leaders, Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahraoui , to the Islamic State . From March 2019 to 2022, IS-GS was formally part of the Islamic State – West Africa Province (ISWAP); when it was also called "ISWAP-Greater Sahara". In March 2022, IS declared the province autonomous, separating it from its West Africa Province and naming it Islamic State – Sahel Province (ISSP).
29-478: Al-Mourabitoun was created on 22 August 2013 after the merging of MUJAO and Al-Mulathameen . On 13 May 2015, elements of Al-Mourabitoun under the leadership of Abu Walid al-Sahraoui pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. It operated independently until 30 October 2016, when it was formally recognized by the Islamic State. The group's ranks increased by dozens of Malian militants and sympathizers from
58-723: A Berber North-West African Islamic dynasty of the 11th and 12th centuries, spanning from Morocco to Senegal and the Iberian Peninsula. It was designated a terrorist organization by the UN , Australia , Canada , Iraq , the United Arab Emirates , the United Kingdom and the United States . On 14 May 2015, Adnan Abu Walid Sahraoui released an audio message pledging the group's allegiance to
87-745: A group of several dozen EIGS fighters, in the Gober Gourou and Firo area, in western Niger. a member of the Islamic State in the Grand Sahara (EIGS). On 11 June 2022, the group attacked the town of Seytenga in Burkina Faso, killing at least 100 civilians in a massacre. On 15 June 2022, it was announced the French military force captured Oumeya Ould Albakaye , a senior ISGS leader in Mali overnight between 11-12 June. Between 2022 and 2023,
116-691: A large group of fighters belonging to the IS-GS attacked a military post in Inates , Niger, killing over seventy soldiers and kidnapping others. On 9 January 2020, a large group of IS-GS militants assaulted a Nigerien military base at Chinagodrar, in Niger's Tillabéri Region, killing at least 89 Nigerien soldiers. During 2021, the group carried out massacres in Niger , mainly in the regions of Tillabéri and Tahoua , killing more than 600 people. The killings included
145-697: A researcher at the French Institute for International Relations (IFRI) , estimated that the Islamic State in the Grand Sahara had a few dozen men – not counting sympathizers – mostly Malians in the region of Gao. At the end of 2015, RFI indicated that the group's workforce would total around one hundred. According to a report from the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) at West Point, the EIGS had 425 combatants in August 2018. The group
174-845: A statement and video released in October 2016. The reason for the lengthy delay in acknowledgement was not clear. On 2 March 2017, al-Mourabitoun's cells in Mali , along with those of Ansar Dine , Macina Liberation Front and the Saharan branch of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb merged into Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM). Attacks continued under the successor group Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM). Institut fran%C3%A7ais des relations internationales The Institut français des relations internationales ( Ifri ; English French Institute of International Relations )
203-558: Is a think tank dedicated to international affairs , based in Paris , France . Ifri was established in 1979 by Thierry de Montbrial , who was inspired by the American model of research institutions. Ifri aims at gathering decision-makers and researchers to develop research and debate on major contemporary international issues. In 2011, for the fourth consecutive year, Ifri was the only French based research institution to be ranked among
232-923: Is a special advisor. Ifri works in partnership with its counterparts on a regular basis; the RAND Corporation , the Brookings Institution , the Council On Foreign Relations and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Carnegie Endowment For International Peace, the Japan Institute for International Affairs (JIIA), the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO),
261-618: Is based in the Ménaka region. As with other armed groups in the Sahel , jihadists or not, the ISGS is part of a largely community-based dynamic. A large part of its combatants is thus Peuls . In Mali, the latter are for the most part Nigerien nationals whom the droughts in the Sahel and the demographic surge of Zarma and Hausa peasants, which is exerted from the south to the north, have pushed on
290-480: Is divided into research centers which are organized by Each center publishes its own collection online, available on the Ifri website. Ramsès , an annual collective work and the quarterly magazine Politique Etrangère are the two main editorial activities of Ifri. Since 1981, the annual report Ramsès is dedicated to the main global trends, and its circulation runs about 10,000 copies. Politique Etrangère , which
319-501: Is paramount and the Institute chose to diversify its public and private sources of funding. Its budget amounts to about 6.5 million Euros, about 70% of which is from private sources. Ifri employs 60 people or so, 30 of them being French, and the balance are foreign researchers from various backgrounds. More than half of them are less than 40 years old. Outside of their research work, every year, Ifri hosts guest speakers from all over
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#1732773104884348-610: The Centre d’Analyse et de Prévision at the Ministry in order to analyze the international relations system. This encouraged him to imagine an independent research center dedicated to this subject. In 1979, he founded Ifri with the support of Prime Minister Raymond Barre and Minister of Foreign Affairs Louis de Guiringaud and his successor Jean François-Poncet . Marc Gilbert (in French) , ex producer of Italiques (in French) at
377-715: The French-Korean Foundation , the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik , and others. Ifri has also had a presence in Brussels since March 2005; Ifri Bruxelles organizes about 30 events each year. The policy oriented research advocated by Ifri aims at highlighting the important international events. It is mainly addressed to political and economical decision-makers, academic institutions, opinion leaders as well as representative of civil societies . To carry out this ambition, its work
406-589: The Gao Region near Ménaka . On 1 November 2019, gunmen killed over 50 soldiers in the 2019 Indelimane attack in the Ménaka Region of Mali. A week later in Burkina Faso, gunmen stormed a convoy of buses for the Boungou miners , killing 37, although some estimate the death toll to be much higher. On 28 November 2019, Spanish authorities issued a warning on the possibility of a terror attack in
435-529: The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Belmokhtar issued a statement several days later rejecting this pledge and stating that it had not been approved beforehand, seeming to indicate a split in the group. On 3 December 2015, AQIM leader Abdelmalek Droukdel announced in an audio statement that Al-Mourabitoun had joined his organization. ISIL formally accepted Sahraoui's pledge of allegiance in
464-616: The Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française became the general secretary. Ifri was established upon an already existing institution, the Centre d’Etudes de Politique Etrangère founded in 1935 by French universities and by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace . Today, the Institute has about 80 partner companies and almost 400 members, who are either private individuals or state and NGO institutions. Dominique Moïsi
493-719: The Tchoma Bangou and Zaroumdareye massacres , the March 2021 Darey-Daye massacre , the Tillia massacres and the 2021 Adab-Dab attack . In December 2021, the French Army announced that it had killed in Niger, one of the perpetrators of the assassination of six French humanitarian workers and their Nigerien companions in the Kouré reserve in August 2020. The man is presented as Soumana Boura . The staff had identified him as leading
522-530: The anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan and the 2002 battles against American forces in the same country, later identified by French Intelligence as an Egyptian known as Abubakr al-Nasri (al-Masri). Abubakr was reportedly killed by French Special Forces in northeastern Mali between 10 and 17 April 2014, as was senior commander Omar Ould Hamaha weeks earlier. The group is named after the Almoravids ,
551-470: The Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). The group sought to implement Sharia law in Mali, Algeria, southwestern Libya, and Niger. On 2 March 2017, al-Mourabitoun's cells in Mali , along with those of Ansar Dine , Macina Liberation Front and the Saharan branch of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb , merged into Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin , the official branch of Al-Qaeda in Mali , after its leaders swore allegiance to Ayman al-Zawahiri . Al-Mourabitoun
580-605: The Malian side of the border. Adnan Abu Walid Al-Sahraoui won the support of many members of this community by promising to protect them against raids and theft of cattle carried out by the Tuaregs , starting with the Dahoussahak (Idaksahak). However, ISGS would include members from the two communities. Thus, at present, the combatants of ISGS are divided into two katibas (combatant units), one composed mainly of Daoussahak and
609-462: The books written by the Ifri researchers. Ifri publishes its findings in several languages. In 2012, 12 of these books were published, four of which in foreign languages, as well as 130 Notes d'Ifri , half of which in foreign languages – English, German and Russian. Ifri’s budget amounted to about 6.5 million Euros in 2011. Ifri's sources of funding are various: subsidies or State contracts, private funding from individuals or companies. The members list
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#1732773104884638-531: The group saw major gains in the Mali War , occupying large swarths of territory in southeastern Mali. Tidermène was captured by the group on 12 April 2023. In early April 2023, the group killed at least 44 civilians in the towns of Kourakou and Tondobi in Burkina Faso. On 21 March 2024, the group ambushed Nigerien soldiers in Tillabéri Region , Niger, killing at least 23 soldiers. The group
667-506: The other of Peuls. Al-Mourabitoun (militant group) Al-Mourabitoun ( Arabic : المرابطون , romanized : al-Murābiṭūn , lit. 'The Sentinels') was an African militant jihadist organization formed by a merger between Ahmed Ould Amer, a.k.a. Ahmed al-Tilemsi's Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa , and Mokhtar Belmokhtar 's Al-Mulathameen . On 4 December 2015, it joined Al-Qaeda in
696-735: The region against Spanish citizens visiting or working in the Saharawi refugee camps in Western Sahara. Spanish authorities feared the attacks would coincide with the Spanish Día de la Constitución (December 6) celebrations. Secret services warned of the risk of a jihadist attack in the Sahara region at refugee camps in Tindouf , Algeria . The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic denied this threat. No attack happened. On 10 December 2019,
725-620: The top 50 most influential think tanks worldwide outside of the United States , placing 3rd in Western Europe according to "Global Go-To Think Tanks", a study undertaken by a team of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania , and ranking more than 6,480 institutes located in 169 countries. Ifri’s goal is to: Ifri is independent from all administrative and financial regulatory authorities and has no affiliation with any political party. Its political and intellectual independence
754-717: The world for them to shed light upon international issues. The Institute organizes about 40 conferences each year in Paris (42 in 2011). Guest speakers from previous years have included, among others: Nicolas Sarkozy , Dmitri Medvedev , Hu Jintao , Jalal Talabani , Hamid Karzai , Vladimir Putin , Mikheil Saakashvili , Abdoulaye Wade , Vaclav Klaus , Pervez Musharraf , Abdullah Gül , Boris Tadic , Viktor Yanukovych , Paul Kagamé , Herman Van Rompuy , José Manuel Barroso , and Anders Fogh Rasmussen . In 1973, Minister of Foreign Affairs Michel Jobert under President Georges Pompidou put Thierry de Montbrial in charge of establishing
783-405: Was composed mostly of Tuaregs and Arabs from the northern Mali regions of Timbuktu , Kidal and Gao , but also included Algerians , Tunisians and other nationalities. Its area of operations was in northern Mali, near towns such as Tessalit and Ansongo . The group's establishment was announced by Mokhtar Belmokhtar , though the group's leader was said to be a non-Algerian veteran of
812-479: Was created in 1936, is the first French magazine on the subject. This quarterly magazine offers a cross-divisional vision of the current international affairs. A special issue was published in 2006 to celebrate the magazine’s 70th anniversary. Along with these two references, Ifri also publishes shorter or more specialized works; Notes de l’Ifri and Les Etudes de l’Ifri , a short magazine named Actuelles de l’Ifri as well as Ifri’s online collections – about 10 – and
841-436: Was founded and headed by Adnan Abu Walid Al-Sahraoui until he was killed by a French drone strike in Mali in 2021. Al-Sahraoui may have been replaced towards the end of 2019 by a new wali, Abdoul Hakim Al-Sahraoui. Among his other commanders are Doundoun Chefou, Illiassou Djibo alias Petit Chafori (or Djafori) and Mohamed Ag Almouner, known as "Tinka", killed by the French Army on August 26, 2018. In early 2017, Marc Mémier,
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