(New York, NY) – The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) is releasing updated resources on Mali, Burkina Faso, and Islamist extremist group al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), following a suicide truck bombing at a military camp in the northern Mali city of Gao that killed at least 47 people and wounded more than 100.

The attack—claimed by AQIM’s Malian branch al-Mourabitoun—targeted Malian soldiers and members of pro-government forces who were set to begin mixed patrols, a key step in the implementation of a peace agreement between the government and Tuareg rebels that ended a 2012-2013 separatist movement in Gao and surrounding areas. 

AQIM and other violent Islamist groups opposed the peace agreement. AQIM and its former offshoot, al-Mourabitoun, have jointly carried out a series of devastating terrorist attacks throughout the Sahel region in an attempt to destroy governments and implement sharia (Islamic law).

On November 20, 2015, two gunmen stormed the Radisson Blu Hotel in Mali’s capital, Bamako, killing 20 people and taking as many as 170 people hostage before being killed by Malian, French, and U.S. troops.

On the night of January 15, 2016, four gunmen attacked the Splendid Hotel in Burkina Faso’s capital of Ouagadougou, as well as the nearby restaurant Le Cappuccino, claiming the lives of 30 people from 18 nations before they were killed by government soldiers and French special forces.  

To view the CEP Report, Extremism and Counter-Extremism in Mali, please click here.

To view the CEP Report, Extremism and Counter-Extremism in Burkina Faso, please click here.

To view the CEP Threat Report on terror group AQIM, please click here.

To view the CEP Threat Report on terror group al-Mourabitoun, please click here.