Amadou Koufa

Amadou Koufa, nom de guerre of Amadou Diallo, also spelled Hamadoun Kouffa or Amadou Kouffa (born 1961) is a Malian Fulani jihadist and preacher who founded Katiba Macina, later part of Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin.

Early life and preaching Diallo was born around 1961 in Saraféré, Niafunké Cercle, Tombouctou Region, Mali. He came from a poor family (a "little noble", a Bary) as the son of an imam who did not have a positive maraboutic lineage. He conducted Islamic training in Bankass Cercle for several years, and later the Inner Niger Delta. It was during this time that Koufa joined the Tablighi Jamaat movement and gravitated away from traditional Sufi-Maliki beliefs and into Salafism. Malian anthropologist Boukary Sangaré stated that Koufa and other jihadists in the region "[spoke] of liberation, emancipation and development, which attracted pastoralists and other marabouts. Had the jihadists won the battle, Koufa would've been designated Emir of Konna. While he was de jure leader of the group, he was more of a spiritual guide than a military decision-maker.

Koufa appeared alongside Ghaly, Djamel Okacha, Abu Hassan al-Ansari, and Abou Abderrahman El Senhadji in a video published in 2017 that marked the creation of Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin, a coalition of five jihadist groups. In late 2017, Koufa sent two emissaries to prominent Fulani figure and former president of the National Assembly Prof. Alioune Nouhoum Diallo in negotiations with the Malian government between JNIM. Koufa set three demands, those being the departure of the French army, the departure of MINUSMA, and that Nouhoum Diallo would be his interlocutor.

On November 8, 2018, Koufa appeared in a new video alongside Ghaly and Okacha, on which he called all Fulani to rise up in the name of jihadism in the seven African countries where they are most populous; "Senegal, Mali, Niger, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Ghana, and Cameroon."

Alleged death and controversies

On the night between November 22 and 23, 2018, the French army attacked JNIM positions near Farimaké. The French government announced the neutralization of thirty jihadists, including the possible death of Koufa. The Malian ministry of defense confirmed Koufa's death the next day, stating he was seriously injured during the attack and died a few hours afterwards in the Wagadou Forest. Malian Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubèye Maïga stated on November 29 that Koufa's body was not in the hands of Malian authorities. Droukdel's claims were confirmed on February 28, 2019, when Koufa appeared in a JNIM video denying and mocking the announcement of his death. An undercover agent during the initial battle of Farimake was executed by JNIM that March.

Post-death allegations In March 2019, Koufa led an attack on Malian forces in Dioura. That November, he was sanctioned by the United States for his activities in Katiba Macina and JNIM. The defectors accused Koufa of being subservient to Ghaly, and not distributing spoils of war equally. These tensions culminated in a war between JNIM and ISGS, with violent fighting taking place in Mopti Region.

The Malian government announced continued dialogue with Koufa and Ghaly in 2021, which was still continuing in 2023.

Koufa denounced the Malian Army's massacres of over two hundred people in Moura in March 2022, claiming only thirty jihadists were present in the town at the time of the massacre. In the same statement, Koufa claimed that JNIM did not kill anybody in the Diallassagou massacre that June.