The Vanguards for the Protection of Muslims in Black Africa (Arabic: جماعة أنصار المسلمين في بلاد السودان‎ Jamāʿatu Anṣāril Muslimīna fī Bilādis Sūdān),[11] better known as Ansaru and less commonly called al-Qaeda in the Lands Beyond the Sahel,[8] is an Islamic fundamentalist Jihadist militant organisation based in the northeast of Nigeria. It originated as faction of Boko Haram, but became officially independent in 2012. Despite this, Ansaru and other Boko Haram factions continued to work closely together until the former increasingly declined, and stopped its insurgent activities in 2015.