The Islamic State - Sahil Province, also called the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (IS-GS), is the affiliate of the Islamic State in the Sahel region of West Africa. The "Islamic State in the Greater Sahara" was created on 13 May 2015 when elements of al-Mourabitoun under Adnan al-Sahrawi pledged allegiance to the Islamic State; this group was formally recognized by IS on 30 October 2016. Its ranks increased when dozens of Malian militants joined the group in Menaka, Gao Region, and the group planned an attack on Spanish citizens working in Western Sahara in December 2019, while also carrying out the massacre of 600 people in western Niger in 2021. The group saw major gains from 2022 to 2023 during the Mali War, although Sahraoui was killed in a French drone strike. The group separated from the Islamic State - West Africa Province (ISWAP) in 2022, becoming an autonomous province and occupying significant swathes of land in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso.