Lemine Ould Mohamed Salem is a Mauritanian journalist, director, and author who embedded himself with jihadists from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in 2012.
[1] He first worked as a journalist for Al Bayane, and then as a correspondent in Paris for the French service of the BBC and as a contributor to Libération, L'Humanité, and Radio Suisse Romande.
[2] At the outbreak of the Mali War in 2012, Salem obtained authorization from jihadist leadership to travel to Gao and Timbuktu, which were under control of Ansar Dine, AQIM, and MOJWA at the time.
The images and videos he recorded during his time in the cities were used for the documentary Salafistes which he co-directed with Francois Margolin and released in 2016.
[3] Abderrahmane Sissako, a Mauritanian filmmaker initially associated with the project, withdrew from it in December 2012 and used Salem's images as inspiration for the fictional movie Timbuktu which was released in 2014.