Visual Timelines · 2015–2026
Until 2015 Burkina Faso had been spared the jihadist violence of neighbouring Mali. The fall of Blaise Compaoré in October 2014 and the dissolution of his presidential guard weakened a security apparatus that had kept armed groups away. Within two years the country had suffered a rare kidnapping of a foreigner, a deadly siege in the capital and the birth of its own jihadist group in the northern province of Soum.
This timeline follows how the violence spread from the Malian border to most of the country, how al-Qaeda's JNIM and the Islamic State's Sahel branch fought the state and each other, and how arming civilians, two coups in 2022 and massacres by soldiers and militias deepened the war. It runs to 23 October 2026, ends with a map of where the groups operate, and separates attacks by jihadists from abuses by the state.
Photo: NASA Johnson Space Center (Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit) · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain (NASA) · original
Spillover and first attacks
Five armed men attacked a patrol at the Tambao manganese mine in Oudalan province, near the borders with Mali and Niger. They wounded a gendarme and a security guard and abducted a Romanian security officer at the mine, Iulian Gherguț. The Sahel jihadist group al-Mourabitoun claimed the kidnapping. Crisis Group's chronology of jihadist violence in Burkina Faso begins with this attack.
Spillover and first attacks
Gunmen opened fire at the Cappuccino café in central Ouagadougou and stormed the Splendid Hotel. Burkinabè forces, backed by French troops, ended the siege the next day and freed about 126 hostages. The UN counted 30 dead and 150 wounded; the victims came from 18 countries, the government said. AQIM claimed the attack, and the UN says al-Mourabitoun carried it out.
Spillover and first attacks
Gunmen attacked the customs post at Markoye, in Oudalan, killing a customs officer and a civilian. Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahraoui, who had broken away from al-Mourabitoun in 2015 and pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, claimed it through the Mauritanian agency Al-Akhbar. His faction, later known as the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, was also credited with an attack on the army post at Intangom on 12 October.
Spillover and first attacks
About forty heavily armed men attacked an army counter-terrorism unit and a gendarmerie post at Nassoumbou, in Soum province, killing twelve soldiers. The attack revealed Ansarul Islam, the first jihadist group born in Burkina Faso. Its founder, Malam Ibrahim Dicko, a preacher from Soum, had won a following by denouncing the power of traditional chiefs, inequality and abuses by the state.
Spillover and first attacks
Assailants struck the armed forces general staff and the French embassy in Ouagadougou at the same time. The UN reported at least eight dead and about eighty wounded; the army said eight security personnel and eight attackers were killed. JNIM, the alliance of al-Qaeda's Sahel groups formed a year earlier, claimed the attacks as revenge for a French raid that had killed several al-Mourabitoun commanders.
Spillover and first attacks
Gunmen attacked the gendarmerie at Pama, and reinforcements sent from Fada N'Gourma struck an explosive device; the government said seven members of the security forces died. The UN recorded more than 65 casualties from attacks in the East in the second half of 2018, against four in all of 2017. On 31 December the president declared a state of emergency in fourteen provinces.
Massacres and militias
Unidentified gunmen killed at least seven people in Yirgou, in the Centre-Nord region, including the village chief. In reprisal, villagers and members of the Koglweogo self-defence groups attacked at least eight Fulani (Peul) settlements over several days. The government counted 47, later 49, dead; civil society groups said about 210. Amnesty International reported in 2023 that no one had been tried.
Massacres and militias
For years the Sahel's al-Qaeda and Islamic State affiliates had avoided fighting each other, an exception analysts called the Sahelian anomaly. It ended after a firefight at Ariel, a Burkinabè border village, in July 2019. By mid-2020 the two had clashed at least 46 times across the Sahel, and in the first half of 2020 JNIM, backed by Ansarul Islam, drove the Islamic State out of central and eastern Burkina Faso, ACLED reports.
Massacres and militias
A five-bus convoy carrying workers to the Boungou gold mine in the East, run by the Canadian company SEMAFO, was ambushed about 40 kilometres from the site. An explosive device hit the military escort, then gunmen fired on the buses. The regional governor gave a provisional toll of 37 civilians killed and more than 60 wounded. No group claimed the attack.
Massacres and militias
Parliament unanimously adopted the law creating the Volunteers for the Defence of the Homeland (VDP): civilians given fourteen days of training to defend their own village under the Defence Ministry. The UN warned of abuses and community violence. In March at least 43 people were killed in three Fulani villages of Yatenga (government toll); survivors told Amnesty International the Koglweogo were responsible.
Massacres and militias
Human Rights Watch documented at least 180 bodies left along roads, under bridges and in fields around Djibo, most of them Fulani men, many blindfolded and shot. Residents said the men had been detained by security forces. On 9 April 2020 alone, 31 detainees were reportedly executed hours after their arrest. The defence minister suggested armed groups wearing stolen uniforms.
Massacres and militias
Gunmen on motorbikes attacked an artisanal gold site, a VDP post, the market and homes in Solhan, Yagha province, executing residents through the night. The government counted 132 dead and 40 wounded; local sources said at least 160. Human Rights Watch called it the deadliest attack since the armed conflict began in 2016. The government said children were among the attackers.
Massacres and militias
Fighters overran the gendarmerie detachment at Inata, near a gold mine in Soum, killing 49 gendarmes and four civilians, according to the government. A memo seen by Reuters showed the unit had run out of food and for two weeks had been slaughtering animals nearby to eat. The UN Monitoring Team says Ansarul Islam led the attack. Protests demanding President Kaboré's resignation followed.
Coups and sieges
Soldiers of the Patriotic Movement for Safeguard and Restoration (MPSR), led by Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, overthrew President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré amid a deepening security crisis. They suspended the constitution and dissolved the government and parliament. ECOWAS and the African Union suspended Burkina Faso. That year most of Ansarul Islam joined JNIM, the UN Monitoring Team reported; Crisis Group dates the shift to after 2017.
Coups and sieges
Groups affiliated with JNIM encircled Djibo, the capital of Soum province, controlling its access roads, laying explosives and destroying water points. ACAPS counted more than 89,000 residents and at least 285,000 displaced people inside. The UN described a strategy of attrition against towns such as Djibo, Pama and Dori. By the end of 2024 about forty localities were under siege.
Coups and sieges
Gunmen went through Seytenga, in Séno province near the Niger border, killing the people they found; the EU's foreign policy chief spoke of the systematic execution of anyone encountered in the village. The government's toll rose from 79 to 86 dead; the UN counted at least 89. More than 16,000 people fled. Human Rights Watch called it the year's worst atrocity.
Coups and sieges
Four days after JNIM ambushed a supply convoy bound for Djibo at Gaskindé — at least 27 soldiers and 10 civilians were killed and 95 vehicles destroyed, Bellingcat reported — a faction of the junta led by Captain Ibrahim Traoré overthrew Damiba. It was the second coup in eight months. The new authorities stepped up recruitment of up to 50,000 more VDP.
Coups and sieges
Men in military uniform encircled Karma, a village in Yatenga province near Ouahigouya, and shot residents at random. The UN human rights office said at least 150 civilians may have been killed. Human Rights Watch counted 156, including 45 children, and attributes the massacre to the army. A week earlier the junta had decreed a general mobilisation.
A war on every front
After a JNIM attack on a military camp near Ouahigouya, soldiers went house to house in the villages of Nondin and Soro, Yatenga province, gathering residents and shooting them as suspected JNIM accomplices. Human Rights Watch documented 223 civilians killed, at least 56 of them children. When the BBC and Voice of America reported the findings, the authorities suspended both broadcasters.
A war on every front
JNIM fighters attacked Barsalogho, in the Centre-Nord, while hundreds of residents, ordered by the authorities, were digging a defensive trench around the town. Human Rights Watch confirmed at least 133 dead and more than 200 wounded in under two hours. JNIM claimed it had killed about 300 militiamen. The government published no toll.
A war on every front
During a special forces campaign in the Boucle du Mouhoun, army units and hundreds of VDP militiamen killed Fulani civilians around Solenzo; in videos, militiamen walking among bodies called for the extermination of the Fulani. Human Rights Watch counted more than 130 dead, possibly many more, and says the army led the massacre. In early April JNIM killed at least 100 men in Sourou province in apparent retaliation.
A war on every front
Hundreds of JNIM fighters attacked Djibo at dawn, overrunning the camp of the counter-terrorism unit and attacking the police station and the market. The next day they took the military base, the gendarmerie and the police station of Diapaga, in the East, and freed prisoners. The UN noted a change of strategy: JNIM was now occupying towns temporarily instead of raiding barracks for weapons.
A war on every front
Hundreds of JNIM fighters entered Titao, a garrison town in Loroum province, attacked its military base, shot men at the market, burned shops and brought down the telecommunications tower. Human Rights Watch documented at least 34 civilians executed, and seven Ghanaian traders also died, according to media cited by HRW. ACLED, cited by HRW, counted more than 30 attacks during the February offensive, with over 120 soldiers, forest guards and militiamen killed.
A war on every front
Burkina Faso severed diplomatic relations with France with immediate effect, and France withdrew all its diplomats by early July. The junta has accused Paris of backing jihadist groups; France called the claims completely false. The rupture capped a turn away from old partners: French special forces left in February 2023, and Burkina Faso left ECOWAS with Mali and Niger in January 2025.
A war on every front
The Islamic State's Sahel branch and JNIM fought at Gonadaouri, in Oudalan province, in clashes that reportedly left several hundred dead. The fighting followed JNIM's killing in August of the Islamic State's commander in Burkina Faso, according to Agenzia Fides. The UN says the truce the two groups had kept earlier in 2025 broke down in Yagha that autumn.
Scroll or drag the timeline; use the arrow keys between events. Select an event for details, map and sources.
This map shows where the two jihadist groups are documented in 2024–2026, province by province, as reported by the UN, ACLED, Human Rights Watch, Crisis Group and others. Colour shows the group; the fill shows how strong the evidence is. Only one source describes territorial control across most of two provinces: the Islamic State in Oudalan and Séno, in 2024. No source states that JNIM controls a whole province.
Islamic State Sahel · Territorial control · 2024Oudalan and Séno, outside the towns
ACLED reported in September 2024 that the Islamic State had consolidated control of most of Oudalan and Séno. Later sources, among them the Belgian asylum agency in January 2026, place its activity mainly in Oudalan, Séno and Yagha but do not restate control. Dori and Gorom-Gorom are army garrisons.
Oudalan · Séno
JNIM + Islamic State Sahel · Documented activity · 2023–2026Liptako frontier: JNIM against the Islamic State
Documented fighting between the two groups in Séno and Yagha (2023–2025) and in Oudalan (October 2026). The UN reported clashes in Yagha from August to October 2025.
Oudalan · Séno · Yagha
JNIM · Area of influence · 2022–2026The blockade belt: Soum, Loroum, Yagha and the East
JNIM besieges or blockades towns here, among them Djibo and Arbinda since 2022, Sollé, Sebba, Mansila and Foutouri, and levies zakat in villages around Djibo, according to Human Rights Watch. It briefly took Djibo and Diapaga in May 2025.
Soum · Loroum · Yagha · Komandjari · Gourma · Tapoa
JNIM · Documented activity · 2024–2026North, Centre-Nord and Centre-Est
Recurrent JNIM attacks documented by the UN, ACLED and Human Rights Watch, among them Barsalogho in 2024. Sanmatenga was the second most affected province by political violence from all perpetrators, July 2024 to November 2025 (ACLED, via the Belgian asylum agency). Blockades are also reported in the East, without the group always being named.
Yatenga · Bam · Sanmatenga · Namentenga · Gnagna · Kompienga · Koulpélogo
JNIM · Documented activity · 2024–2026Boucle du Mouhoun
The region with the most victims of political violence from July 2024 to November 2025: 1,865, counting all perpetrators, including the Solenzo massacre led by the army and militias (ACLED, via the Belgian asylum agency). JNIM attacked villages of Sourou and posts at Di, Lanfiéra and Solenzo.
Kossi · Sourou · Mouhoun · Banwa
JNIM · Documented activity · 2024–2026South-western borderlands
Low-intensity activity near the borders with Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana: 33 victims of political violence, all perpetrators, in the Sud-Ouest region from July 2024 to November 2025. Described as an area of retreat and transit.
Comoé · Léraba · Poni · Noumbiel
JNIM · Historical presence · 2016–2018Where Ansarul Islam began
Ansarul Islam launched its insurgency in Soum in 2016; most of it was later absorbed into JNIM.
Soum
Islamic State Sahel · Historical presence · 2016–2020Islamic State presence before 2020
The Islamic State in the Greater Sahara operated in these provinces until JNIM drove it out of central and eastern Burkina Faso in the first half of 2020 and later, largely, out of Soum, Yagha and the Centre-Nord, according to ACLED.
Soum · Yagha · Bam · Sanmatenga · Namentenga
Figures claiming that jihadists hold 40 or 60 per cent of Burkina Faso circulate widely, as does the defence minister's statement in August 2024 that the state controls about 70 per cent of the territory. None explains how it was measured, so none is mapped here.
Each map shows the places of the events of one phase in colour, and those of earlier phases in grey. They show the reach of the conflict, not territorial control; the territorial map above shows where the groups operate.
Tolls are the figures given by the cited sources; where counts differ, the range or the competing figures are given. Since 2022 the junta no longer publishes military losses, so most recent figures cannot be verified independently.
JNIM is al-Qaeda's branch in the Sahel; the Islamic State in the Sahel, formerly the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, is the Islamic State's. The two cooperated until 2019 and have fought each other since, with a pause in 2025. Ansarul Islam, the first group founded in Burkina Faso, fought alongside JNIM and was largely absorbed by it.
Koglweogo are community self-defence groups; the Volunteers for the Defence of the Homeland (VDP) are civilians armed and paid by the state since 2020. Neither is a jihadist group. Fulani (Peul) civilians have been targeted by both as suspected supporters of the jihadists.
Terrorism, here, means violence by a non-state group against civilians or symbolic targets to intimidate a population or pressure a government. Attacks on army and gendarmerie posts are recorded as insurgency. Killings of civilians by the army, the VDP or militias are recorded as abuses or massacres, with the responsible party named, and are not labelled terrorism.
Burkina Faso shares its armed groups and its recent history with its neighbours. These links point to documented connections, not to a single causal story.
Visual Timelines · MaliMali: from the 2012 rebellion to the siege of BamakoJNIM was founded in Mali, where about half its fighters are based, the UN estimates. In late 2025 it moved fighters from Burkina Faso to its fuel blockade of Bamako.
Visual Timelines · NigeriaNigeria: from Boko Haram to ISWAPThe Islamic State's West Africa Province helped prepare the January 2026 attack by the Sahel branch on Niamey airport, the UN reports.
Analysis · SahelThe Sahel: terrorism, state fragility and the new security orderHow Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger became the deadliest jihadist theatre, why the model built after 2013 collapsed and what the juntas' alliance with Russia has delivered.Every event rests on at least one identified document. Links open the original source; certainty labels follow the portal's source and confidence criteria.
1 · A kidnapping at the Tambao mine
Places: Tambao mine
AFP noted at the time that kidnappings of foreigners, frequent in Mali and Niger, were not usual in Burkina Faso. Al-Mourabitoun released a video of the hostage, filmed in August 2015.
Photo: C. Hugues · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0 · original
2 · Siege of the Splendid Hotel
Places: Ouagadougou
Uncertainty: Tolls differ slightly: 30 dead and 150 wounded (UN), 30 dead from at least 11 countries and over 70 wounded (Human Rights Watch), at least 28 (AP, two days later).
The UN called the attacks in Ouagadougou and, two months later, in Grand-Bassam (Côte d'Ivoire) unprecedented. The same day an Australian couple was kidnapped near Djibo, in Soum province; AQIM claimed it, according to Crisis Group.
Photo: Sputniktilt · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · original
3 · The Islamic State's Sahel faction crosses in
Places: Markoye
Uncertainty: The claims are known through a Mauritanian news agency and a UN member state. The Intangom toll differs: three soldiers (Defence Ministry, via AP) or four soldiers and a civilian (Crisis Group).
Amaq, the Islamic State's news agency, announced al-Sahraoui's pledge on 30 October 2016; UN member states did not yet consider it accepted by the Islamic State's leadership, the UN Monitoring Team reported.
Photo: Zoumana Wonogo (VOA) · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain (VOA) · original
4 · Nassoumbou and the birth of Ansarul Islam
Places: Nassoumbou
Uncertainty: Ansarul Islam claimed the attack only through an unverified Facebook page. Crisis Group says it was reportedly led by Ansarul Islam together with the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara.
Dicko probably died in the spring of 2017. In 2018 the UN Monitoring Team described the group as split between a faction led by Jafar Dicko and one close to the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara.
Photo: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain (NASA) · original
5 · Twin attack on the army and France
Places: Ouagadougou
The UN Monitoring Team later reported that JNIM's deputy leader had planned the attacks. It was the third major attack in the capital in just over two years.
Photo: US Diplomatic Security Service · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain (US government) · original
6 · A second front opens in the East
Places: Pama · Fada N'Gourma
Uncertainty: No group claimed the Pama attack and the UN names none. Reported tolls range from six to eight.
The state of emergency covered the East and Sahel regions and the provinces of Kossi, Sourou, Koulpélogo, Kénédougou and Loroum. It followed the killing of ten gendarmes in an ambush near Toéni on 27 December.
Photo: Martin Wegmann · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 · original
7 · Yirgou: a militia massacre of Fulani
Places: Yirgou
Uncertainty: The UN reported more than 67 killed. The first attack was apparently carried out by members of Ansarul Islam, Amnesty says; it was not claimed.
Yirgou opened a cycle of community reprisals against the Fulani, whom militias and later state forces accused of siding with the jihadists. This was not terrorism by a jihadist group: the mass killing was carried out by a self-defence militia.
Photo: Lamine Traoré (VOA) · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain (VOA) · original
8 · Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State go to war
Uncertainty: Counts of clashes and deaths come from analysts (CTC Sentinel, ACLED) working from press reports and the groups' own claims; ACLED estimated more than 300 fighters killed.
Photo: C. Hugues · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0 · original
9 · Ambush on a mining convoy
The day after, President Kaboré announced the recruitment of civilian volunteers to defend their villages.
Photo: Marco Schmidt · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 · original
10 · Arming civilians: the VDP
After the September 2022 coup the junta announced the recruitment of 50,000 more volunteers. Human Rights Watch says JNIM treats any community with VDPs as allied with the security forces, and so as a target.
Photo: Henry Wilkins (VOA) · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain (VOA) · original
11 · Bodies along the roads of Djibo
Places: Djibo
Uncertainty: No witness saw the executions documented in July 2020; Human Rights Watch says the available evidence points to government forces. It reported little progress in the investigations in 2022.
These killings are recorded as abuses by state forces, not as terrorism.
Photo: Fred van der Kraaij / ASC Leiden · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · original
12 · Solhan, the deadliest night
Places: Solhan
Uncertainty: No group claimed the attack and JNIM denied responsibility. The Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime says a group loosely affiliated with JNIM carried it out; the UN gives no attribution.
The authorities closed artisanal gold sites in Oudalan and Yagha. Solhan fuelled the protests that preceded President Kaboré's fall.
Photo: Fred van der Kraaij / ASC Leiden · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · original
13 · Inata: gendarmes left without food
Places: Inata
Photo: darrylkeith (Panoramio) · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 · original
14 · First coup: Damiba ousts Kaboré
Places: Ouagadougou
Photo: Lamine Traoré (VOA) · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain (VOA) · original
15 · Djibo under siege
Places: Djibo
Supply convoys to Djibo became a target: in September 2022 one was destroyed at Gaskindé (event 17). Human Rights Watch described the siege as ongoing in April 2026.
Photo: Moctar Barry (VOA) · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain (VOA) · original
16 · Seytenga: a village executed
Places: Seytenga
Uncertainty: No group claimed the massacre. Al Jazeera reported that it bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State's Sahel branch; the government spoke of unidentified gunmen.
Photo: Adam Jones · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 · original
17 · Second coup: Captain Traoré
Places: Ouagadougou
JNIM claimed the Gaskindé ambush and posted footage that Bellingcat geolocated. The UN described the convoy as about 150 trucks.
Photo: EKokou · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · original
18 · Karma: a massacre in uniform
Places: Karma
Uncertainty: The government condemned the killings and opened an investigation; the local prosecutor gave a toll of 60. No one has been held responsible.
Photo: Fernando Hidalgo Marchione · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0 · original
19 · Nondin and Soro
Places: Nondin and Soro
Uncertainty: The local prosecutor reported about 170 people executed and opened an investigation; Human Rights Watch found no progress by 2025. The media regulator called the findings 'hasty and biased'; the government did not respond to AFP.
The media regulator also blocked Human Rights Watch's website and warned other media they could face sanctions if they carried the report.
Photo: Fred van der Kraaij / ASC Leiden · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · original
20 · Barsalogho: killed while digging a trench
Places: Barsalogho
Uncertainty: Tolls diverge widely: at least 133 (Human Rights Watch), at least 200 (initial UN estimate, reported by CNN), nearly 300 (JNIM's claim), up to 600 (French government security assessment, reported by CNN).
Photo: Lamine Traoré (VOA) · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain (VOA) · original
21 · Solenzo: an ethnic massacre
Places: Solenzo
Uncertainty: The government said security forces and militias had repelled a terrorist attack. JNIM told Human Rights Watch that the men it killed in Sourou were fighters. Human Rights Watch dates the Sourou reprisals to 1–5 April 2025 in its World Report and to May 2025 in its April 2026 report.
The killings took place during the operation Green Whirlwind 2 (Tourbillon Vert 2). Ouagadougou's chief prosecutor warned that calls to exterminate an ethnic group were offences.
Photo: Marco Schmidt · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 · original
22 · JNIM storms Djibo and Diapaga
Places: Djibo · Diapaga
Human Rights Watch documented at least 26 civilians executed in Djibo and at least 10 in Diapaga. JNIM claimed it had killed 200 soldiers; a military source told Al Jazeera the figure was exaggerated.
Photo: Stefyguida · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · original
23 · Titao and the 2026 offensive
Places: Titao
Uncertainty: AFP dates the attack 15 February; Human Rights Watch, 14 February. AFP counted about ten civilians killed; JNIM claimed dozens of soldiers.
After months in which JNIM had moved fighters to Mali, the UN Monitoring Team reports that the group claimed more than 130 attacks in Burkina Faso in 2026 and expanded closer to Ouagadougou.
Photo: Bruno Le Bansais · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 · original
24 · The break with France
Places: Ouagadougou
Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger formed the Alliance of Sahel States and signed a confederation treaty in Niamey in July 2024. Russia has sent military instructors since 2024; no Russian combat role in Burkina Faso is documented.
Photo: Ji-Elle · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · original
25 · Jihadist against jihadist in Oudalan
Places: Gonadaouri
Uncertainty: Only the Islamic State has given a toll, more than 400 JNIM fighters, which cannot be verified; a researcher told RFI its figures are always false. JNIM had not commented officially as of 16 October (RFI).
Photo: Barchecka · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · original
Events were selected for the change they mark in the war — in the groups' reach and organisation, in the state's response, in foreign involvement or in the harm done to civilians — rather than for their death toll alone. Each rests on at least one primary or independent source: UN Security Council and Secretary-General documents, the UN Monitoring Team and the UN human rights office; Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International; ACLED, ACAPS and the Global Terrorism Index; Crisis Group; official statements; and reporting by Al Jazeera, AFP, Reuters, AP, RFI and others.
Figures are given only when an identified source publishes them; claims by the government and armed groups are labelled as such. Where sources disagree on a date, a toll or the group responsible, the entry says so. The territorial map aggregates provinces named by the sources and gives each zone its sources and evidence level. Information is current to 23 October 2026.
