Islamic State – Sahel Province: what Wikipedia removed
The Islamic State – Sahel Province, formerly the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, is an Islamic State affiliate that has claimed attacks across the Sahel. In 2020 the opening called it “the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (IS-GS) is a terrorist militant group with a Salafi Jihadism ideology.” Today the opening calls it simply “an Islamist militant group adhering to the ideology of Salafi Jihadism,” and terror appears zero times in the opening, though it survives twenty-nine times in the article. A reader today learns the group’s ideology, and not that Wikipedia’s own opening once called it a terrorist group.
The word “terror” appeared 3 times in this article’s opening at its peak, in 2020. Today the opening carries none; the body carries 29. Checked against the full current article on 2026-08-01.
The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot
Section titled “The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot”| word | 2020 | 6 October 2023 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| terror | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| militant | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| islamist | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| jihad | 3 | 1 | 1 |
Counts are of the opening paragraph only, the part most readers, search engines and AI training sets ever quote.
What was taken out
Section titled “What was taken out”- The description of the group as a terrorist militant group, changed to the softer ‘Islamist militant group’ with the word terrorist dropped.
- A sentence on the leadership split that produced the group, reworded and moved.
- The detail that roughly 100 militants pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in December 2015, dropped from the opening.
How it opened then, and now
Section titled “How it opened then, and now”2020 (revision 943532289):
The Islamic State in the Greater Sahara ( IS-GS ) is a terrorist militant group with a Salafi Jihadism ideology. ISIS-GS was formed on 15 May 2015 as the result of a split within the militant group Al-Mourabitoun . The rift was a reaction to the adherence of one of its leaders, Adnane Abou Walid al-Sahraoui , to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant . Al-Mourabitoun was created on 22 August 2013 after the merging of MUJAO and El-Mouaguiine Biddam. On 13 May 2015, MUJAO pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in a statement by the group’s leader, Walid al-Sarhaoui. It operated independently until 30 October 2016, when it was formally recognised by the Islamic State. In December 2015, about…
2025 (revision 1297615724):
Islamic State affiliate The Islamic State – Sahel Province (ISSP) , formerly known as Islamic State in the Greater Sahara ( IS-GS ), is an Islamist militant group adhering to the ideology of Salafi Jihadism . IS-GS was formed on 15 May 2015 as the result of a split within the militant group Al-Mourabitoun . The rift was a reaction to the adherence of one of its leaders, Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi , to the Islamic State . From March 2019 to 2022, IS-GS was formally part of the Islamic State – West Africa Province (ISWAP); when it was also called “ISWAP-Greater Sahara”. In March 2022, IS declared the province autonomous, separating it from its West Africa Province and naming it Islamic State –…
Related
Section titled “Related”- The drift report: what changed across all 61,944 watched articles
- The case file for this article, with every snapshot and every marked removal
- Who made the cuts: removals grouped by the account that made them
- The live article on Wikipedia
Wikipedia text is quoted under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is not affiliated with Wikipedia.