Al-Mourabitoun (jihadist group)

Al-Mourabitoun (المرابطون al-Murābiṭūn; "The Sentinels") is an African militant Jihadist organisation formed by a merger between the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa and Mokhtar Belmokhtar's Masked Men Brigade.

Al-Mourabitoun is composed mostly of Tuaregs and Arabs from the northern Mali regions of Timbuktu, Kidal and Gao, but also includes Algerians, Tunisians and other nationalities. Its area of operations is in the north of Mali, near towns such as Tessalit and Ansongo.

Although the group's establishment was announced by Belmokhtar, the group's leader was said to be a non-Algerian veteran of the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan and the 2002 battles against American forces in the same country, later identified by French Intelligence as an Egyptian known as Abubakr al-Nasri (al-Masri). Abubakr was reportedly killed by French Special forces in North Eastern Mali between 10 and 17 April 2014, as was senior commander Omar Ould Hamaha weeks earlier.

The group is named after the Almoravids, a North African Islamic dynasty of the 11th and 12th centuries.