| Takoumbaout ambush | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Mali War | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| |||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Unknown | Abderrahmane Talha Abou al-Nour al-Andalusi | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 6 killed 2 injured | None | ||||||
On July 2, 2015, a MINUSMA convoy was ambushed by jihadists affiliated with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb en route from Goundam to Timbuktu.
MINUSMA is the United Nations peacekeeping force, and shortly after it was implemented in the fallout of the Mali War, became a target of jihadist groups such as Ansar Dine and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). These groups are often active in Tombouctou Region, where the ambush took place. [1]
Prior to the attack, the AQIM fighters had a lot of intelligence regarding the MINUSMA convoy, including how many soldiers would be on it and where it would be going and at what time. [1] At the moment the jihadists attacked with rocket launchers and guns, the convoy was going at very high speeds, causing a "very violent" situation that surprised the peacekeepers. [1] [2] The ambush was claimed the same day by AQIM. MINUSMA reported the deaths of six peacekeepers and five injured, who were all part of the Badenya battalions, Burkinabe units of MINUSMA. [3] AQIM, in a press release to Mauritanian news agency al-Akhbar, claimed the deaths of seven peacekeepers and four destroyed vehicles. [4]
MINUSMA dispatched units to the site following the attack, but the jihadists had fled at that point. [4] In early September, AQIM released a video of the ambush. The video contained songs and imagery used often by propaganda videos from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. In the video, several dozen fighters of the al-Quds unit commanded by Katiba al-Furqanemir Abderrahmane Talha. [5] Another member of Katiba al-Furqan, a Spaniard named Abou al-Nour al-Andalusi led a group of twenty-five men in the video. [6]
An Islamist insurgency has been ongoing in the Sahel region of West Africa since the 2011 Arab Spring. In particular, the intensive conflict in the three countries of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso has been referred to as the Sahel War.
The battle of Ber took place on October 27, 2018, after Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) militants attacked a MINUSMA base manned by Burkinabe soldiers in Ber, Mali.
The 2019 Aguelhok attack was an attack by Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin against the MINUSMA base in Aguelhok, Mali on January 20, 2019. At the time of the attack, the base was defended by Chadian and Bengali peacekeepers and was later aided by French forces as part of Operation Barkhane.
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 May 29, 2016, Katiba Macina militants ambushed Togolese peacekeepers in MINUSMA near Sévaré, Mali. The attack was the first deadly attack against UN peacekeepers in Mopti Region during the Mali War, and the first major engagement involving Togolese peacekeepers during the war.
On May 18, 2016, militants from Ansar Dine ambushed Chadian forces north of Aguelhok, Mali.
On January 15, 2016, unknown militants ambushed Malian forces near Wanna, in Goundam Cercle, Mali.
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 August 7, 2015, jihadists from Al-Mourabitoun and Katiba Macina attacked the Byblos Hotel in Sévaré, Mali. The attack was one of the largest attacks against civilians in Mopti Region during the Mali War, and led to the deaths of thirteen people, including five civilians.
On May 11, 2015, a Malian convoy was ambushed by Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) fighters in Tin Telout, Tombouctou Region, Mali. The ambush was the last conflict between the Malian government and CMA before the signing of the Algiers Accords.
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 Salahaddin, a katiba within MOJWA that later reformed in the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara after Bady defected.
On October 3, 2014, nine Nigerien peacekeepers were killed in an ambush by al-Mourabitoun in Indelimane, Mali.
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).
On October 23, 2013, Katiba Salahadin militants attacked Chadian peacekeepers in the city of Tessalit, sparking a battle between the militants and Chadian and French forces. The attack was the first attack by jihadists targeting MINUSMA peacekeepers during the Mali War.
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.
The Tourine ambush, also known as the Tourine massacre, was one of the September 14, 2008, jihadists from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) ambushed Mauritanian soldiers in the village of Tourine, near Zouérat, Mauritania. The ambush was the first major attack by AQIM during the Insurgency in the Sahel, and sparked major changes in the Mauritanian military.
Soldiers of the Burkina Faso Armed Forces were deployed in United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) between 2013 and 2023. During the mission, Burkinabe forces were the largest contributor to the mission, and often belonged to the best elements of the Burkinabe army.
Djamel Okacha, nom de guerre Yahia Abou al-Hamman, was an Algerian jihadist who fought in the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) and later Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM). Okacha served as the commanders of Katiba al-Furqan and Katiba al-Mulathamoun within AQIM, and was appointed as the co-governor of Tombouctou Region during Ansar Dine's capture of the region during the 2012 Tuareg rebellion. Okacha was then appointed as the second-in-command of AQIM between 2012 and 2017, where he co-founded JNIM alongside Iyad Ag Ghaly and Amadou Kouffa. Okacha served as the second-in-command of JNIM until his death in 2019.
