Clashes Between Rival Jihadist Factions Intensify in Northern Burkina Faso

Intense clashes between rival militant groups Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) and the ISIL affiliate in Sahel Province (ISSP) have escalated in northern Burkina Faso, resulting in heavy reported casualties along the border with Mali. The confrontation between the al-Qaeda-aligned JNIM and Islamic State-linked ISSP comes while Burkinabe state forces face mounting pressure across multiple regions.

According to reports from the conflict monitoring group Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) and regional media, fighting intensified in early September near Kacham, where ISSP claimed to have killed over 200 JNIM fighters. A subsequent battle on October 9 near Ganadaouri, located in Burkina Faso's northern Oudalan province, led to claims by ISIL’s publication Al-Naba that more than 400 JNIM combatants were killed. Regional media outlet i-Sahel verified at least 120 bodies from photographs released by ISSP on November 1, though the overall death toll remains unconfirmed independently.

The escalation between the two jihadist factions occurs alongside ongoing JNIM operations against Burkina Faso's military and the state-backed Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP). ACLED recorded more than 30 attacks by JNIM during a February 2026 offensive, which resulted in the deaths of over 120 soldiers, militia members, and forest guards. The International Crisis Group reports that JNIM maintains extensive territorial control in northern, eastern, and western parts of the country, using those bases to sustain operations in neighbouring Mali and Niger.

The inter-group violence forms part of a broader rivalry that has persisted across the Sahel region since 2019. ACLED has documented approximately 320 direct confrontations between JNIM and ISSP since the onset of their turf war, accounting for more than 2,200 combatant fatalities. Between January 1 and November 28, 2025, political violence across Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger resulted in more than 10,000 recorded deaths.

The worsening security environment has severely impacted civilians, creating widespread displacement and disruption to regional livelihoods. United Nations planning figures indicate that 4.5 million people in Burkina Faso require humanitarian assistance in 2026, while official government data from March 2023 recorded 2.1 million internally displaced persons. At the same time, the conflict has continued to spread beyond the central Sahel into Niger’s Tillaberi and Dosso regions, as well as Kebbi State and Kwara State in Nigeria.

Heni Nsaibia of ACLED noted that the casualties sustained in clashes with ISSP force JNIM to reallocate fighters and military equipment away from its main fronts against state militaries. Viraj Pattni, a senior analyst at security firm Castor Vali, stated that JNIM has established a training base in Mali's Sikasso Region near the border with Ivory Coast, while expanding operations into Benin and Togo. Pattni attributed the ongoing expansion toward littoral West Africa to porous international boundaries, local marginalisation, and heightened communal tensions.

Written by Andreas Hofer andreas.hofer@alpineweekly.com