Sahel jihadist clashes intensify as IS claims 400 killed

Clashes between rival jihadist factions in the Sahel have escalated, with Islamic State - Sahel Province claiming it killed more than 400 fighters from the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims.

The claimed toll has not been independently confirmed. Heni Nsaibia, an analyst at conflict monitor ACLED, said that if the figure is confirmed it would be the deadliest single battle recorded between the two groups.

ISSP said on Monday that it had killed more than 400 JNIM fighters, including several leaders, in clashes four days earlier in Burkina Faso's Oudalan province, near the Mali and Niger borders.

Wamaps, a collective of West African journalists, said the latest clashes between JNIM and IS fighters erupted on October 9 in the tri-border area.

The two extremist coalitions have fought repeatedly since 2019 as they compete for influence over the same areas, routes and local populations. A report by UN experts submitted to the Security Council in early August described the clashes as the most intense direct confrontation globally between an Al-Qaeda branch and an IS-linked group.

Nsaibia said the groups fought more than 320 battles between 2019 and last month, resulting in about 2,200 deaths. He said the fighting, long concentrated in Mali and Burkina Faso, has recently spread to western Niger and northwestern Nigeria.

UN experts estimated that JNIM has between 7,000 and 8,000 fighters, compared with about 2,000 members of IS. The UN experts' report said JNIM remained the leading terror threat in the Sahel despite the losses claimed by IS.