Armed fighters from two rival groups — Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM), an al-Qaeda affiliate, and the ISIL affiliate in Sahel Province (ISSP) — have fought a series of increasingly deadly battles along Burkina Faso's northern border with Mali since early September, Al Jazeera reported on Friday, November 13, as the Burkinabe government struggles to reassert control over large parts of the country.

Source: Al Jazeera, Nov 13, 2026

Competing claims of heavy casualties

One of the first major confrontations took place near Kacham, close to the Mali border, in early September. ISSP claimed it killed more than 200 JNIM fighters, captured more than 30 others and seized weapons and motorcycles. That claim has not been independently verified. Heni Nsaibia of the monitoring group Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) told Al Jazeera that, if confirmed, the reported 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 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 that it 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.

Source: Al Jazeera / i-Sahel, Nov 13, 2026

A rivalry since 2019, now spreading

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 rivalry began. A second report this week, by the Africa Defense Forum, likewise described the September and October confrontations as the deadliest yet between the groups.

Source: Africa Defense Forum, Nov 12, 2026

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 Viraj Pattni, a senior associate at the security risk firm Castor Vali, told Al Jazeera that JNIM's expanding operations could increase the threat to countries along the Gulf of Guinea, citing its activity in Togo, Benin and Nigeria.

For Nsaibia, the growing confrontation could force JNIM to reconsider how it allocates its resources, diverting fighters from its primary fight against government forces and allied militias in Mali and Burkina Faso. Al Jazeera reported that an estimated 4.5 million people in Burkina Faso need humanitarian assistance in 2026, according to United Nations humanitarian planning figures.

What happens next

What to watch is whether JNIM publicly responds to ISSP's claims, whether any independent verification of the death tolls emerges, and whether the infighting gives Burkina Faso's military government — in power since a 2022 coup and still losing ground to armed groups that hold extensive areas in the north, north-central region, west and east, according to the International Crisis Group — any opening to recover territory.