Editing Al-Qa'ida in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb

{{Infobox Organization
| organization_name        = 
| image                    = Category Terrorism.png
| image2                   = 
| abbreviation             = AQIM
| formation                = 
| predecessor              = 
| founder                  = 
| founding_location        = 
| founding_year            = January 2007
| type                     = 
| status                   = 
| purpose                  = 
| headquarters             = 
| location                 = 
| methods                  = 
| fields                   = [[Politics]]
| membership               = 
| membership_year          = 
| language                 = 
| leader_title             = 
| leader_name              = Abdelmalek Droukdel
| key_people               = 
| slogan                   = 
| website                  = 
| case_file                = Terrorist Organizations Main Page
}}

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) is a Salafi-jihadist militant group and a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) operating primarily in North and West Africa, with active regions spanning Northern and Southern Algeria, Mali, Libya, Niger, and Mauritania.  It originated in 1998 as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), a breakaway faction from the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), which had waged war against Algeria’s secular government during the 1990s civil conflict.  In January 2007, the GSPC formally merged with al-Qaeda and rebranded as AQIM, aligning itself with global jihadist ideology under the leadership of Abdelmalek Droukdel (also known as Abou Mossab Abdelwadoud), who has led the group since 2004. 

AQIM’s core ideology is Salafist jihadism, aiming to overthrow governments deemed apostate—including those of Algeria, Mali, Libya, Tunisia, and Morocco—and to establish fundamentalist regimes based on Sharia law.  It has also targeted Western interests, particularly France and Spain, due to their colonial histories and military presence in the region.  The group gained international notoriety with the December 2007 bombings of the UN headquarters and the Algerian Constitutional Court in Algiers, which killed 33 people. 

Over time, AQIM has evolved into a hybrid criminal-terrorist organization, relying heavily on kidnappings for ransom—estimated to have raised over $50 million in the last decade—as well as drug and cigarette trafficking across the Sahara.  This shift was driven by counterterrorism pressure in Algeria and the instability in Mali and Libya. In 2017, AQIM’s Sahara branch merged with other groups, including the Macina Liberation Front and Ansar Dine, to form Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM), though AQIM remains a distinct entity. 

Key leaders include Yazid Mubarak, who currently leads the group, and Yahya Abu El Hammam, a senior commander killed in a French operation in February 2019.  AQIM has also been linked to other extremist groups, including [[Al-Shabaab]] (Somalia), [[Boko Haram]] (Nigeria), and the Islamic State in Libya, though the extent of coordination remains debated. 

AQIM is designated as a terrorist organization by the United Nations, United States, European Union, NATO, France, the UK, Russia, China, Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UAE, and Malaysia, among others.  Despite its reduced capacity for large-scale attacks since the French-led Operation Serval (2013), AQIM continues to pose a significant transnational threat through its criminal networks and regional influence in the Sahel.
  



{{article summary
 | image  = Category Terrorism.png
 | title = {{TITLE}}
 | summary = Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) is a Salafi-jihadist militant group and a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) operating primarily in North and West Africa, with active regions spanning Northern and Southern Algeria, Mali, Libya, Niger, and Mauritania.
}}

[[Category: Terrorist Organizations]]