--- title: "Qaeda and ISIS Affiliates Fight Deadly Battles on Burkina Faso’s Border With Mali" description: "The Islamic State’s Sahel branch says it killed more than 400 JNIM fighters in October, but its own photos show at least 120 bodies." author: "rews desk" published: 2026-11-13T05:23:31Z modified: 2026-11-13T16:30:49Z url: https://rews.cc/a/qaeda-and-isis-affiliates-fight-deadly-battles-on-burkina-fa-2fa3cd language: en tags: ["war", "security", "jihadism", "mali", "niger", "mideast"] publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)" --- # Qaeda and ISIS Affiliates Fight Deadly Battles on Burkina Faso’s Border With Mali *The Islamic State’s Sahel branch says it killed more than 400 JNIM fighters in October, but its own photos show at least 120 bodies.* By rews desk · November 13, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/qaeda-and-isis-affiliates-fight-deadly-battles-on-burkina-fa-2fa3cd ## In brief - JNIM and the Islamic State’s Sahel affiliate have fought increasingly deadly battles near Burkina Faso’s border with Mali since September - ISSP says it killed more than 400 JNIM fighters near Ganadaouri, Oudalan, starting Oct. 9. The claim is unverified - I-Sahel counted at least 120 bodies in photos ISSP released on Nov. 1 - ACLED has recorded about 320 clashes and more than 2,200 fighter deaths between the groups since 2019 - About 4.5 million people in Burkina Faso need humanitarian aid in 2026, according to the UN Al Qaeda’s and the Islamic State’s affiliates in the Sahel have fought a string of increasingly deadly battles along Burkina Faso’s northern border with Mali since early September, as the government struggles to hold territory. The Islamic State Sahel Province, known as ISSP, says it killed more than 400 fighters from its rival, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin, or JNIM, in fighting that began on Oct. 9 around Ganadaouri, in the northern province of Oudalan. The claim ran in Al-Naba, the Islamic State’s weekly publication. JNIM hasn’t responded publicly, and no independent assessment has put a number on the dead. The group’s own evidence falls well short. ISSP released photographs on Nov. 1 that it said showed the aftermath of the battle, and the regional outlet i-Sahel counted at least 120 bodies in them, [Al Jazeera reported](https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/11/13/burkina-fasos-rival-armed-groups-turn-on-each-other-as-state-loses-ground). I-Sahel said it couldn’t verify that the people pictured had died in that fighting. ![A torn black-and-white photograph of a fallen motorcycle rests on orange paper, casting a long dark shadow that fragments into scattered shapes.](https://rews.cc/img/bec6ca99cd868d6f505dfbf61af17fbdd5215343.webp) An earlier fight near Kacham, close to the Mali border, came with a similar claim. ISSP said it killed more than 200 JNIM fighters there in early September, took more than 30 prisoners and seized weapons and motorcycles. That hasn’t been independently verified either. Heni Nsaibia of the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data project, or ACLED, a conflict monitor, said the toll would make it the deadliest battle ever recorded between the two groups if it were confirmed. The October claim, if true, would double it. The groups have fought since 2019. ACLED has recorded about 320 armed clashes between them and more than 2,200 fighters killed. The International Crisis Group [describes the rivalry](https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/sahel/burkina-faso) as a contest over territory, taxation networks and the loyalty of local communities in the area where Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger meet. It no longer stays there. Since April, the fighting has reached Niger’s Tillaberi and Dosso regions and Nigeria’s Kebbi State, [Africanews reported](https://www.africanews.com/2026/10/16/rival-jnim-and-islamic-state-jihadists-clash-in-intensifying-sahel-turf-war/), citing Mr. Nsaibia. ![Torn patches of dry farmland with houses and a winding road stretch between two large dark horns against a blue background.](https://rews.cc/img/f4304a3e9a17b41f79c0eb344bbd41147d440059.webp) Mr. Nsaibia said JNIM had struggled to counter ISSP, which had come out on top in several of their biggest battles in recent years. “These increasingly deadly confrontations are forcing JNIM to divert fighters and resources from its primary objective of fighting government forces and allied militias in Mali and Burkina Faso,” he said. That objective has gone well for JNIM. The Crisis Group says it holds large parts of Burkina Faso, mainly in the north, the north-central region, the west and the east. During a February offensive, JNIM carried out more than 30 attacks on the army and the state-backed Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland, killing more than 120 soldiers, forest guards and militia fighters, according to an ACLED overview published in March. Viraj Pattni, a senior associate at the security risk firm Castor Vali, told Al Jazeera that the group’s reach now extends toward the Gulf of Guinea. “The threat of Islamist militancy spreading to coastal countries is very real,” he said. JNIM has set up at least one training camp in Mali’s Sikasso Region, near the border with Ivory Coast, he said, and its “stranglehold over the Est Region” of Burkina Faso let it step up operations in Togo and Benin in 2025. ![A large worn combat boot dominates a textured collage of dry savanna and a tropical coastal village against a burnt-orange background.](https://rews.cc/img/5b35eef9eb6abc11ffcced49c104483cffaa8e51.webp) “The group’s activity extended noticeably further into Benin in 2025, and they also claimed their first official attack in Nigeria’s Kwara State in October 2025,” Mr. Pattni said. He pointed to porous borders, marginalization in the northern regions of coastal countries and anti-Fulani sentiment as reasons the group was likely to keep expanding. About 4.5 million people in Burkina Faso need humanitarian aid this year, according to the [UN humanitarian office](https://www.unocha.org/burkina-faso), which is seeking $658.5 million to reach 2.7 million of them. The last consolidated official count of people displaced inside the country, from March 2023, was about 2.1 million. Across Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, ACLED recorded more than 10,000 deaths from political violence between Jan. 1 and Nov. 28, 2025. A citizen of Niger with family in Tillaberi, who asked not to be named because of security concerns, told Al Jazeera the infighting had raised some hope. “If JNIM and ISSP keep fighting each other, the danger to our communities may lessen, since their forces may weaken,” the person said. “People here deserve the chance to work their fields, travel safely, and raise their children without fearing attacks from either group.”