Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) pledged its allegiance to the Islamic State in May 2015. The group operates and has carried out attacks in the Mali-Niger-Burkina Faso tri-border area. ISGS’s primary objective is the replacement of regional governments with an Islamic State and to destabilize the Sahel. ISGS regularly targets regional security and military forces, including: Tuareg militias, French soldiers, Niger Gendarmerie forces, Burkina Faso security services, and Malian soldiers. The group claimed responsibility for the killing of a Canadian geologist in January 2019 and is suspected of attacking a Canadian mining company convoy the same year.
