Macina Liberation Front

In March 2012, the President of Mali Amadou Toumani Touré was ousted in a coup d'état over his handling of an insurgency in Northern Mali. As a consequence of the instability that followed, Mali's three largest northern cities—Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu—were overrun by a mixture of Islamists and Tuareg Nationalists. By July, the Tuareg were pushed out by their former allies, and the area became dominated by Jihadist groups: Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Ansar Dine, and the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO).[10]

In January 2013, the Islamists captured the town of Konna in Central Mali, after fierce fighting with Malian forces. They were driven out by French forces days later,[11] the start of a French-led military intervention known as Operation Serval. However, some fighters were able to retreat to hideouts in the mountains or deserts and regroup.[12] Ethnic Fulani veterans of the conflict make up the core of the group. The Fulani are around 9 percent of Mali's population, but are locally dominant in the Mopti Region, which was the center of the 19th Century Fulani-led Islamic state of Macina.[8]

The Macina Liberation Front first came to prominence in January 2015, when it claimed responsibility for attacks in central and southern Mali. The group's leader is Amadou Kouffa, a marabout who had acted as commander for the Islamist militants in the 2013 Battle of Konna.[1]

The group has been responsible for attacks targeting United Nations peacekeepers, French troops and Malian government forces, as well as civilians.[2]

In March 2017, Amadou Kouffa appeared in a video, alongside leaders from the Saharan branch of AQIM, Al-Mourabitoun and Ansar Dine, in which it was announced that they were merging their organisations into a group called Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin.[3][13]

Kouffa was reportedly killed by the French Army in November 2018.[14] In February 2019, however, France 24 reported it had obtained a 19-minute long video that appeared to show him alive.[15]

On 10 January 2020, armed clashes took place between loyal members of Amadou Koufa and a some dissidents near the commune of Dogo within the Macina Liberation Front. Several points of disagreement have led a faction of dissidents affiliated with Mamadou Mobbo to criticize Amadou Kouffa for the mismanagement of natural resources. Two combatants of Katiba Macina were killed as a result of these confrontations.

Mamadou Mobbo is one of those who helped Amadou Koufa to legitimize his fight in Macina, a region where Koufa is not originally from.

In a video published at the end of January, the group of combatants led by Mamadou Mobbo defected by pledging allegiance to the Islamic State and its Caliphate Abu Ibrahim al-Hachimi al-Qourachi, thereby seeking recognition for the Islamic State.[16]