The issue of formation and activity of radical Islamic organizations in West Africa is one of the most relevant for the study of trends in development of the region and the ways of development of the various trends in contemporary Islam. In this context, the study of the genesis, ideological and social base, as well as the main activities of the most numerous and active radical Islamic organizations in the West African region, such as Boko Haram, Ansar al-Din, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and some others are important and demanded. After the events of the Arab Spring of 2011 and because of the revitalization of the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham and al-Qaeda in Africa, the role and influence of the aforementioned organizations in the Sahel-Saharan region has undergone significant changes. The role and influence of local radical groups increased significantly in the context of a weak economic base, ecological problems, low standard of living, a large property polarization of society, systemic corruption, increasing drug trafficking, the presence of unresolved ethnic and religious conflicts, weak inter community relations and, as a consequence, the ineffectiveness of the government and the vacuum of values. Their leaders are using populist slogans of social justice, borrowed from the global Islamic organizations such as al-Qaeda and ISIS. This often means the transfer of global concepts to local soil when the practices of action are borrowed while the ideological component is either lost or exposed to distortion and erroneous interpretations. The research is based on media materials, analytical articles, political reviews in English, French, and Russian. It is also based on the analysis of scientific articles and monographs on the subject of radical Islam in the countries of North and West Africa.