Deadly Battles Between Rival Armed Groups Grip Burkina Faso's Northern Borderlands

Fighters from two rival armed groups have fought a series of increasingly deadly battles along Burkina Faso's northern border with Mali, as the government struggles to reassert control over large parts of the country.

The clashes between Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM), an al-Qaeda affiliate, and the ISIL affiliate in Sahel Province (ISSP) have intensified since early September, with both groups competing for territory and influence across the borderlands. Their latest confrontations have produced competing claims of heavy casualties, although figures released by the ISIL group remain unverified.

One of the first major confrontations took place near Kacham, close to the Mali border, in early September. ISSP claimed to have killed more than 200 JNIM fighters, captured more than 30 others and seized weapons and motorcycles, a claim that has not been independently verified. Heni Nsaibia of the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) monitoring group said that, if confirmed, the reported death toll would make it the deadliest battle recorded between the two groups.

The fighting escalated again on October 9 around Ganadaouri, in the northern province of Oudalan, where ISIL's weekly publication, Al-Naba, claimed that more than 400 JNIM fighters had been killed. JNIM has not publicly responded, and no independent assessment has established the number of casualties. When ISSP published photographs on November 1 presented as evidence of victory, regional outlet i-Sahel counted at least 120 bodies in the images but said it could not verify whether those pictured were victims of the reported fighting, a visible toll considerably below the 400 deaths claimed.

The confrontation is part of a rivalry that has persisted since 2019 over territory, influence and access to local populations across the Sahel. ACLED has recorded around 320 armed confrontations between the two groups and more than 2,200 fighter deaths. The fighting comes as JNIM gains ground against government forces: the International Crisis Group says the group holds extensive areas of the country, particularly in the north, north-central region, west and east, while maintaining operations in neighbouring Mali and Niger. ACLED's March 2026 overview documented more than 30 JNIM attacks during a February offensive against the military and the state-backed Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP), which killed more than 120 soldiers, forest guards and militia fighters.

The rivalry could offer Burkina Faso's authorities some breathing room if JNIM is forced to divert fighters and resources to defend its positions against ISSP, but there is little reason to assume the infighting will translate into lasting gains for the government. For communities caught between the armed groups and government forces, the prospect of one organisation weakening another offers little certainty of relief. An estimated 4.5 million people in Burkina Faso need humanitarian assistance in 2026, according to United Nations planning figures, while the last consolidated official estimate of internal displacement, published in March 2023, put the number at approximately 2.1 million.

A citizen of Niger, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns, said the fighting between the two groups had raised hopes that borderland communities might face less pressure. 'In Tillaberi, where I have family members, our people have endured too much fear,' the person said. 'People here deserve the chance to work their fields, travel safely, and raise their children without fearing attacks from either group.'

The rivalry is no longer confined to Burkina Faso and Mali. ACLED has documented its spread into Niger's Tillaberi and Dosso regions and Nigeria's Kebbi State, and recorded more than 10,000 deaths from political violence across Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger between January 1 and November 28, 2025.

Viraj Pattni, a senior associate at security risk management company Castor Vali, said JNIM's expanding operations could increase the threat to countries along the Gulf of Guinea. 'The threat of Islamist militancy spreading to coastal countries is very real,' he said, noting that the group has established at least one training camp in Mali's Sikasso Region and expanded its operations in Togo and Benin in 2025, also claiming its first official attack in Nigeria's Kwara State in October 2025. Nsaibia, for his part, said the 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.'