Islamic State – West Africa Province
Militant group and branch of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Islamic State's West Africa Province (ISWAP), officially Wilāyat Garb Ifrīqīyā (Arabic: ولاية غرب إفريقيا), meaning "West African Province",[1] is a militant group and administrative division of the Islamic State (IS), a Salafi jihadist militant group and unrecognised quasi-state. ISWAP is primarily active in the Chad Basin, and fights an extensive insurgency against the states of Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Turkey. It is an offshoot of Boko Haram with which it has a violent rivalry; Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau killed himself in battle with ISWAP in 2021. Until March 2022, ISWAP acted as an umbrella organization for all IS factions in West Africa including the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (IS-GS), although the actual ties between ISWAP and IS-GS were limited.
Islamic State – West Africa Province | |
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ولاية غرب إفريقيا West African Province | |
Dates of operation | 2015 – 2016 (as unified group) 2016 – present (after split) |
Split from | Boko Haram |
Group(s) | Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (tenuously) |
Active regions | Chad Basin (mainly) |
Ideology | Salafi jihadist Islamism |
Size | c. 5,000 (2019) |
Part of | Islamic State |
Opponents | Nigeria Burkina Faso Cameroon Chad Niger Turkey Boko Haram |