Burkina Faso's rival armed groups turn on each other as state loses ground

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. The claim has not been independently verified.

Heni Nsaibia of the monitoring group Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) 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 Burkina Faso's northern Oudalan province. ISIL's weekly publication, Al-Naba, subsequently claimed that more than 400 JNIM fighters had been killed. JNIM has not publicly responded to the claim, and no independent assessment has established the number of casualties.

The scale of the claim came under further scrutiny when ISSP published photographs on November 1 presented as evidence of its victory. Regional news outlet i-Sahel counted at least 120 bodies in the images but said it could not independently verify whether those pictured were victims of the reported fighting.

The confrontation is part of a rivalry that has persisted since 2019, when the two groups began fighting over territory, influence and access to local populations across the Sahel. ACLED has recorded around 320 armed confrontations between them and more than 2,200 fighter deaths since the conflict began.

The fighting comes as JNIM continues to make gains against government forces in Burkina Faso. The International Crisis Group says the group holds extensive areas of the country, particularly in the north, north-central region, west and east. ACLED's March 2026 overview documented more than 30 JNIM attacks in Burkina Faso during a February offensive against the military and state-backed Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP). The attacks resulted in the deaths of more than 120 soldiers, forest guards and militia fighters, according to ACLED.

For Nsaibia, the growing confrontation between the two groups could force JNIM to reconsider how it allocates its resources across the region. He said the group had struggled to counter ISSP, which had repeatedly emerged victorious from some of their most significant battles in recent years, and that the fighting was forcing JNIM to divert fighters and resources from its primary objective of fighting government forces and allied militias in Mali and Burkina Faso.

A citizen of Niger who spoke to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity because of security concerns said the fighting between the two groups had raised hopes that communities in the borderlands might face less pressure. 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.

Viraj Pattni, a senior associate at the security risk management company Castor Vali, told Al Jazeera that JNIM's expanding operations in the region could increase the threat to countries along the Gulf of Guinea. Pattni said JNIM had expanded the intensity of its operations in western and southern Mali over the past 24 months and had established at least one training camp in the Sikasso Region. He said the group expanded and intensified its operations in Togo and Benin in 2025, and claimed its first official attack in Nigeria's Kwara State in October 2025.