Al-Qaeda in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (Arabic: تنظيم القاعدة في بلاد المغرب الإسلامي, romanized: Tanẓīm al-Qā'idah fī Bilād al-Maghrib al-Islāmī, French: l'Organisation d'Al-Qaïda aux Pays du Maghreb Islamique), or AQIM,[16] is an Islamist militant organization (of al-Qaeda) that aims to overthrow the Algerian government and institute an Islamic state.

Membership is mostly drawn from the Algerian and local Saharan communities (such as the Tuaregs and Berabiche tribal clans of Mali),[21] as well as Moroccans from city suburbs of the North African country.

[27] On 2 March 2017, the Sahara branch of AQIM merged with Macina Liberation Front, Ansar Dine, and Al-Mourabitoun, into Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin.

[29][31] On 19 January 2009, the UK newspaper The Sun reported that there had been an outbreak of bubonic plague at an AQIM training camp in the Tizi Ouzou province in Algeria.

[32] The Washington Times, in an article based on a senior U.S. intelligence official source, claimed a day later that the incident was not related to bubonic plague, but was an accident involving either a biological or chemical agent.

[33] Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is one of the region's wealthiest, best-armed militant groups due to the payment of ransom demands by humanitarian organizations and Western governments.

AQIM commander Yahya Abou El-Hammam, in an interview with a Mauritanian website, was quoted as saying "Today, the mujahideen have built up brigades and battalions with sons of the region, our black brothers, Peuls, Bambaras and Songhai".

In December 2013 Yahya Abu Hammam gave an interview to Aljazeera in which he threatened France's military intervention in the Sahara would open "the gates of hell for the French people".

[47] According to U.S. Army General Carter Ham, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the Somalia-based Al-Shabaab, and the Nigeria-based Boko Haram were as of June 2012 attempting to synchronize and coordinate their activities in terms of sharing funds, training and explosives.

[36][48] However, according to counter-terrorism specialist Rick Nelson with the Washington-based Center for Strategic International Studies, there was little evidence that the three groups were targeting U.S. areas, as each was primarily interested in establishing fundamentalist administrations in their respective regions.

[50] According to London-based risk analysis firm Stirling Assynt, AQIM issued a call for vengeance against Beijing for mistreatment of its Muslim minority following the July 2009 Ürümqi riots.