Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) was formed in January 2007 after changing its name from the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), the remnant of an armed Islamist group which fought a savage war with the secular Algerian government during the 1990s.

The GSPC had as many as 28,000 members at the height of the war but today estimates for AQIM put its strength in the hundreds. The adoption of the al-Qaeda franchise two years ago was seen at the time as a desperate attempt to revitalise the group.

But it demonstrated its deadly intent when, in April 2007, 33 people were killed in Algiers in a triple suicide bombing and, in December, a twin suicide bombing claimed at least 41 lives at offices of the the United Nations and a court building in the Algerian capital.

In February 2008, gunmen from the group attacked the Israeli embassy in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott, highlighting Mauritania's status as one of the few Arab countries with diplomatic ties to the Jewish state.

The same month it kidnapped two Austrian tourists from Tunisia, holding them hostage for eight months in a desert area of Mali. Although the group demanded the release of Islamic militants held in jail in Algeria and Tunisia, the Austrians were freed unharmed eight months later. There was speculation that a ransom of $5 million (£3 million) was paid.

In September last year 12 Mauritanian soldiers were abducted and decapitated in an attack claimed by al-Qaeda. In April two Canadian diplomats and two European tourists kidnapped in Niger were released after several months in captivity. It is believed that an $8 million (£4.8 million) ransom was paid, along with the release of a number of AQIM militants from Malian prisons.

Common to all the kidnappings was the involvement of Mokhtar Belmokhtar, also known as “One-Eyed”.

Belmokhtar, an alumnus of al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan, replaced Amari Saïfi, a former Algerian army officer-turned-GSPC leader better known as Abderrazak al-Para — “The Paratrooper” — after his capture by Algerian forces trained by the United States-led Pan-Sahel Initiative.

While the Algerian government has had considerable success in fighting AQIM in the north of the country, Belmokhtar’s southern base has proved resilient, operating along Algeria’s southern border with Mali and Niger and forging local alliances with the famed “Blue Men” of the Tuareg.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which is based in the Algerian mountain region, has not, until now, been viewed as a particular international threat, mostly because its main raison d'etre seemed to be focused on its internal war with the Government of Algeria rather than committing to the wider, global jihad espoused by Osma bin Laden and his Egyptian deputy. But other sections of the Maghreb faction pose potential threats to the outside world.

Northern Nigeria has many of the ingredients for terrorism that could spread outside its borders, although the potential for a spill-over threat to the United Kingdom, in terms of sponsoring attacks in Britain, appears to be limited. The majority of Nigerians in Britain are Christians and come from the south of Nigeria.

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