(New York, NY) -- The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) is releasing a new resource on violent African jihadist group al-Mourabitoun and its leaders, considered by the U.S. State Department to pose “the greatest near-term threat to U.S. and Western interests in the Sahel.”

Al-Mourabitoun (“The Sentinels”) was formed from a 2013 merger between al-Mulathamun (“The Masked Men”) Battalion (AMB) and the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO). Both groups were offshoots of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

Al-Mourabitoun believes it has a “Shari’a-based duty” to unite Africa’s Muslims and Islamic movements against secular and non-Muslim influences. The group has targeted France and French interests in the region. Al-Mourabitoun accused France of killing “peaceful children, women and old men” during its 2013 intervention in Mali in response to terrorist attacks. Mali is a former French colony.

The leader of al-Mourabitoun, Algerian Mokhtar Belmokhtar, is one of the most elusive and deadly veteran extremist leaders in Africa. Belmokhtar was a leader of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) and later helped establish AQIM. He led one of AQIM’s two major brigades, and was responsible for most of the group’s hostage operations targeting foreigners. In 2013, Belmokhtar masterminded the four-day siege at Algeria’s Amenas gas plant that killed 38 hostages, including three Americans. 

Belmokhtar’s death has been announced several times but never confirmed. In 2013, the government of Chad announced he had been killed in an antiterrorism operation in Mali. In July 2015, the U.S. government announced that Belmokhtar had been targeted by a U.S. airstrike in Libya. In early October, an Algerian news channel reported that Balmoktar’s death had been declared by an al-Qaeda spokesman in a recorded audio message.

Explore the history, ideology and leadership of al-Mourabitoun, and other extremist groups, leaders, propagandists and terror financiers at counterextremism.com.