| Battle of Araouane (2009) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Insurgency in the Sahel | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Mali |  AQIM and affiliated drug traffickers | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Hamma Ould Mohamed Yahya (POW) | Unknown | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 70 men, 12 pick-ups | ~40 men | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 16-28 killed 3-30 prisoners | 1-20 killed | ||||||
On July 4, 2009, clashes broke out between Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Malian forces near Araouane, Mali.
On June 11, 2009, AQIM jihadists assassinated Malian officer Lamana Ould Bou in his home in Timbuktu. [1] Malian forces launched an offensive against AQIM in retaliation for the assassination on June 16, near Garn-Akassa, killing sixteen to twenty-six jihadists. [2]
On July 3, 2009, American intelligence alerted Malian officials to a drug trafficking convoy in rural northern Tombouctou Region. Hamma Ould Mohamed Yahya, the Malian deputy commander in Tombouctou Region, organized a patrol of seventy men on twelve pick-ups to intersect the convoy. The trafficker's vehicle was spotted by the Malian forces, but managed to escape, although Malian forces killed a machine gunner. Between 3 and 4am the following night, around forty AQIM jihadists ambushed the Malian soldiers. [3]
The Malian government did not release any information about the ambush, only announcing "very deadly skirmishes" and that "losses were recorded on both sides." [4] [5] Survivors of the battle stated that "of the twelve army vehicles, six were destroyed with their occupants, and the other six were scattered in the desert. We don't yet know who is alive and who is dead." [6] Jeune Afrique reported that the ambush was conducted by AQIM and affiliated drug traffickers. Sixteen Malian soldiers were killed and twenty were taken prisoner, including Yahya. Between one and twenty jihadists were killed as well. [3]
AQIM claimed responsibility for the ambush on July 8, and claimed the deaths of twenty-eight Malian soldiers and capture of three others. AQIM also claimed one Mauritanian within their ranks was killed. [7] Yahya was released in March 2012. [5]
The Battle of Timbuktu occurred in Timbuktu, Mali, in March 2013, between Islamist groups and Mali government forces supported by France.
Amadou Koufa, nom de guerre of Amadou Diallo, also spelled Hamadoun Kouffa or Amadou Kouffa is a Malian Fulani jihadist and preacher who founded Katiba Macina, later part of Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin.
Ahmed al-Tilemsi, nom de guerre of Abderrahmane Ould El Amar was a Malian jihadist leader and drug trafficker who served as a founding member and senior figure of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) and a senior figure and alleged emir of al-Mourabitoun.
Mohamed Ould Nouini, nom de guerre Abu Hassan al-Ansari was a Malian jihadist known for perpetrating the 2016 Ouagadougou attacks and the Grand-Bassam attack, along with his high position in Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin.
On November 24, 2017, jihadists from Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin ambushed Nigerien MINUSMA peacekeepers and Malian soldiers in the village of Indelimane, Mali.
On August 14, 2017, jihadists from Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin attacked a MINUSMA base in Timbuktu, Mali.
On January 15, 2016, unknown militants ambushed Malian forces near Wanna, in Goundam Cercle, Mali.
Nabil Makhloufi, nom de guerre Nabil Abou Alqama, was an Algerian jihadist who fought in the Algerian Civil War and the Mali War, and served as the head of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)'s Sahara region between 2011 and 2012.
On August 3, 2015, jihadists from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) launched an attack on Malian forces in Gourma-Rharous, Mali. Eleven Malian soldiers were killed in the attack.
On January 5, 2015, militants from Katiba Macina and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) overran Malian defenses and briefly captured the city of Nampalari, Mali.
Abdou Aïssa, nom de guerre Sultan Ould Bady, is a Malian jihadist and drug trafficker. He co-founded the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWA) with Hamada Ould Mohamed Kheirou and Ahmed al-Tilemsi, and founded Katibat Salahadin, a katiba within MOJWA that later reformed in the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara after Bady defected.
Between October 26 and November 8, 2014, French forces of Operation Barkhane launched an offensive against jihadists from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Ansar Dine in the area of Ametettai, rural Kidal Region. It was dubbed Operation Tudelle by French authorities.
Abderrahmane Talha, also known as Abou Talha al-Mauritani or Talha al-Libyy, is a Mauritanian jihadist who is the wali of Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin's territory in Tombouctou Region.
Hamada Ag Hama, also known as Abdelkrim Taleb or Abdelkrim al-Targui was a Malian jihadist and emir of Katiba Al Ansar, a brigade in Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
Between March 4 and 5, 2014, French forces conducted a bombing campaign in the Ametettai mountains of Kidal Region against al-Mourabitoun. The bombings killed Omar Ould Hamaha, a prominent jihadist commander, and several other militants.
Baba Ould Cheikh is a Lemhar Arab Malian drug trafficker with close ties to jihadist groups.
On July 5, 2011, clashes broke out between Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Mauritanian forces in Bassikounou, Mauritania.
The battle of Areich Hind, also known as the Battle of Raz el-Ma, took place between September 17 and 19, 2010, during the Islamist insurgency in the Sahel. Mauritanian forces launched an offensive against a group of AQIM jihadists in Malian territory on September 17.
On July 22, 2010, French and Mauritanian forces launched a raid on an Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) base in Tombouctou Region, Mali, in an attempt to rescue French hostage Michel Germaneau. The forces were able to destroy the base, but Germaneau was not rescued and later executed by AQIM.
On June 16, 2009, Malian forces clashed with jihadists from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in Garn-Akassa, Kidal Region, Mali.