Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), the dominant Islamist armed group in the central Sahel, currently controls significant areas in Mali and Burkina Faso and is expanding into neighbouring states. JNIM has targeted the pastoralist Peuhl ethnic group for recruitment, and in the areas it controls, implements its interpretation of shariah governance, regulating economic activity, collecting taxes, providing services, and shaping social, cultural, and religious practices.
This report offers a ground-level view of JNIM governance in action. Drawing on in-person interviews with 77 Peuhl women living in JNIM-administered areas in Mali and Burkina Faso, backed up by other interviews with village elders, security officials, policymakers, and civil society actors. The interviews provide critical insights into both the attraction and limits of JNIM’s governance model, revealing a nuanced picture of life under the group.
The paper demonstrates how deeper understanding of JNIM’s governance model in Mali and Burkina Faso, where it is more advanced than in neighbouring states – can help inform cross-border conflict and counterterrorism responses and prevention efforts across the Central Sahel and Coastal West Africa (CWA). In particular, it points to the danger of such strategies inadvertently reinforcing the extremist dynamics they seek to address should women’s experiences and perspectives continue to be overlooked.