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Mokhtar Belmokhtar Mokhtar Belmokhtar Salafist Group for Call and Combat North Africa 20030605  
  Khalid Abu Al Abbès Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat Africa North Algerian At Large 20071112 Link
    Alias of Mokhtar Belmokhtar
  Belaouar Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat Africa: North Algerian At Large 20050613 Link
    Alias of Mokhtar Belmokhtar
  Mokhtar Belmokhtar Salafist Group for Preaching and Fighting Africa: North 20040620 Link
  Mokhtar Belmokhtar Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat North Africa Algerian At Large 20030516  

Africa North
Al-Qaeda terrorists heap pressure on Mali's military, 18 toes up in coordinated attacks Wednesday
2022-07-28
[AFRICANEWS] Mali's armed forces said, Wednesday, murderous Moslems had simultaneously attacked a military camp located in the western town of Kalumba, and the camp in Sokolo.

The armed forces of Mali also denounced "terrorist infiltration attempts" in "the Hamadoun Bocary Barry camp" as well as an attempt at "the Air Force compound" in the city of Sevaré, central Mali.

In the last few days, the jihadists of the Sahel-based al-Qaeda nebula have stepped up the pressure on the Malian junta, with an unprecedented level of coordination of operations.

This comes at a time of deteriorating security context. The West African country has been plagued by war since 2012 and shaken by two coups d'état in two years (2020, 2021).The Group for the Support of Islam and Moslems (GSIM, JNIM in Arabic), affiliated to al-Qaeda, looks to extending its influence amid the confusion.

One of the lastest major event was the Friday attack on an army building in Kati, a garrison town 15km from Bamako and the heart of Mali's military apparatus where the president of the transitional authorities resides. One soldier was killed in the attack.

It is the first time that such a strategic and symbolic site is targetted. al-Qaeda jihadists had in recent years been targeting security posts in rural and peri-urban areas in Mali's north and centre.

STRATEGIC THREATS
It is a way to tell "(the authorities) that they can strike anywhere, as far away as possible" from their base, said a Malian observer of the security situation in Sévaré (centre).

The day before the Kati attack, six coordinated attacks were launched simultaneously in the centre and south of the country at 5am. A first. These southern regions (Sikasso, Koulikoro, Kayes), formerly spared by the foot soldiers of the jihad, are now a target.

Most of the attacks are claimed by the GSIM, created in 2017 by the merger of several factions: al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqmi, a pioneer of Sahelian jihad, born in Algeria in 2007), the groups Ansar Dine
...a mainly Tuareg group that controlled areas of Mali's northern desert together with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and MUJAO in early 2012...
 of Malian Iyad Ag Ghali and al-Mourabitoune of the late Mokhtar Belmokhtar, and the Katiba Macina of Amadou Koufa
...Imperator of the Macina Liberation Front, one of the local groups within Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Moslemin (JNIM), the regional umbrella affiliated with Al Qaeda in North Africa. MLF draws from the cattle-herding Fulani
... a peculiarly brutal tribe of Moslem herdsmen infesting Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and probably other places that are light on law and order and heavy on tribal identity...
 tribe extant in Mali, Niger, and Nigeria, which appeared in 2015 for the purpose of jihading against the farming tribes of Dogon and Bambara. Amadou was reported killed in a French raid, but he arose from the dead sometime around January 2019, to continue jihading as usual...

15 troops, 3 civilians killed in coordinated Mali attacks: Army

[AlAhram] At least 15 soldiers and three non-combatants were killed in coordinated "terrorist" attacks in Mali, the chronically unstable country's army said Wednesday, the latest deadly violence to rock the Sahel state.

In Kalumba, near the Mauritanian border, "the corpse count on the friendly side is 12, including three civilians from a road construction company", the army said in a statement.

The army corpse count in Sokolo, in central Mali, was six with 25 others maimed, five of them seriously.

A third attack, in centrally-located Mopti ended without casualties overnight.

Over the weekend, Mali's army said it had thwarted a new attack on a military camp in the centre of the country, two days after a deadly suicide kaboom in a strategic garrison town near the capital.

The Malian army has intensified its anti-jihadist operations in recent months, relying on what it describes as Russian instructors.

Despite a deteriorating security situation, the junta turned its back on La Belle France and its international partners, instead leaning on Russia to stem the threat posed by jihadists to Mali, as well as Burkina Faso
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other...
 and Niger.
Deutsche Welle adds:
This was the third attack in a week after al-Qaeda-linked militants set off two car bombs targeting Mali's main military base outside the capital, Bamako, on Friday, a day after a series of insurgent attacks.

In Wednesday's coordinated attacks, three military bases were targeted, according to the army statement.

The army said in a statement that 48 militants were killed in Sonkolo.
Link


Africa North
France arrests 'high-ranking' jihadist in Mali: Army
2021-06-17
[AlAhram] Dardar was formerly a member of the al-Qaeda-linked Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), many of whose fighters joined EIGS
No doubt EIGS better matches Islamic State in the Greater Sahara in some languages other than English. MUJAO, sometimes abbreviated as MOJWA, hooked up with Mokhtar Belmokhtar’s al-Mulathameen Brigade to form the Al Qaeda in North Africa-linked al-Mourabitoun, part of which split off to pledge allegiance to ISIS in 2015. Both groups seem to be jihading in the same territory, but somehow they make it work.
French forces have captured in Mali a man they describe as a "high-ranking fighter of the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
 in the Greater Sahara" (EIGS), the French army's chief of staff said on Wednesday.
Link


Africa Subsaharan
JNIM confirms deaths of co-founder, senior leaders in French raids
2018-03-06
[LongWarJournal] In its official claim of responsibility for Friday’s terrorist attacks in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, al Qaeda’s Group for Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) also confirmed the deaths of several of its senior leaders.

According to the jihadist group, the assault on the French embassy in Ouagadougou was in response to the French raids on Feb. 14 between Boughessa, Mali, and Tinzaouatene, Algeria. In that operation, French forces conducted three simultaneous raids, accompanied with airstrikes, which killed or captured over 20 jihadist fighters. JNIM confirmed the death of six of its leaders, including its co-founder, Hasan al Ansari.

Ansari, along with Mokhtar Belmokhtar and Ahmed el Tilemsi, was also a co-founder of Al Murabitoon. He would later become the second-in-command of the al Qaeda-loyal group, before becoming a co-founder and senior leader within JNIM. In the photo above, Ansari can be seen sitting second from the right between Iyad Ag Ghaly and Abu Abdul Rahman al Sanhaji, another Murabitoon official.

JNIM also confirmed the death of two top Ansar Dine commanders, Malik Ag Wanesnet and Abdullah Ag Oufata. Wanesnet, also known as Abu al Tayyib, was a former colonel in the Malian army before defecting to the jihadist cause and becoming a top military commander for Ansar Dine. Oufata was the former mayor of Boughessa, Mali, before he joined the Tuareg jihadist group. Ansar Dine joined Murabitoon, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb’s Sahara branch, and Ansar Dine’s Katibat Macina (also known as the Macina Liberation Front) to form JNIM last year.
Link


Africa North
French Army Kills 15 Mali Jihadists
2017-10-27
[AnNahar] The French army said Thursday it had eliminated an "armed terrorist group" linked to al-Qaeda in northern Mali, killing 15 jihadists.

Army front man Patrick Steiger said troops from La Belle France's regional Barkhane anti-terror operation carried out a joint strike against the group with French special forces about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Kidal.

The operation, backed by fighter jets and helicopters, took place overnight Monday.

It "allowed us to take 15 members of this katiba out of action", Steiger said, using a local word for a Death Eater unit.

The group was a branch of Ansar Dine
...a mainly Tuareg group that controlled areas of Mali's northern desert together with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and MUJAO in early 2012...
, which has links to the regional al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI) group, he added, saying weapons and ammunition including assault rifles and grenades were destroyed in the raid.

La Belle France has had some 4,000 soldiers deployed in the Sahel region
... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas...
 -- a vast stretch of territory on the edge of the Sahara Desert -- since 2014.

The announcement in Gay Paree came as the Mali-based branch of al-Qaeda, Nusrat al-Islam wal Moslemeen, claimed an attack in the north that killed two soldiers.

U.S. monitoring group SITE said the claims were made on the Telegram messenger channel of the group's so-called al-Zallaqa Media Foundation.

The creation of Nusrat al-Islam wal Moslemeen was announced on March 2 as a fusion of Ansar Dine, the al-Murabitoun of Mokhtar Belmokhtar and the "Emirate of the Sahara," a branch of AQMI.
Link


Africa North
Macron heads to Mali to reaffirm French commitment to battle jihadists
2017-05-20
[AlAhram] President Emmanuel Macron undertakes his first trip as commander-in-chief on Friday when he meets troops fighting Islamist forces of Evil in Mali where the security situation has worsened despite French intervention more than four years ago.

The Sahel, a politically fragile area whose remote desert spaces spanning from Mauritania in the west to Sudan in the east host a medley of jihadist groups, is seen as vulnerable after a series of attacks in recent months.

That has been brought further to light after a spike in violence across Mali, where the former colonial power intervened more than four years ago to drive out al Qaeda-linked forces of Evil who hijacked a rebellion in 2012 by ethnic Tuaregs and attempted to take control of the central government in Bamako.

Macron, a newcomer to international diplomacy, put counter-terrorism at the top of his security priorities during the election campaign, vowing to strengthen support for West African allies.

"Emmanuel Macron made the commitment during the campaign to immediately go and see troops engaged in the fight against terrorism," said a senior French diplomat.

The trip to Gao, where some 1,600 troops are based and where he will also hold talks with Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, will reaffirm Gay Paree' engagement, in stark contrast to his predecessor Francois Hollande
...the Socialist president of La Belle France, an economic bad joke for la Belle France but seemingly a foreign policy realist...
, who began his term pulling troops out of Afghanistan.

After sending troops to Mali, La Belle France has since spread some 4,000 soldiers across the region to hunt down Islamists,
...that would be Operation Barkhane, named after a crescent-shaped dune in the Sahara desert. They are faced off against the local branch of Al Qaeda in North Africa in its latest iteration announced this March, being a compilation of the Tuaregs of Ansar Dine, al-Murabitoun, led by Algerian myrmidon Mokhtar Belmokhtar, and the Macina Brigades of central Mali: The Group to Support Islam and Moslems headed by Ansar Dine's Iyad Ag Ghaly. The other heads are now emirs, at least until clashing egos force a new formation...
while United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
' peacekeepers have been deployed to ensure Mali's stability.

However,
it was a brave man who first ate an oyster...
 the U.N.'s forces have lacked equipment and resources, making a political settlement between Tuaregs and the government in Mali increasingly fragile and paving the way for Islamists and traffickers to exploit a void in the north of the country.
No doubt the UN forces have been doing their bit to increase fragility, given the habits of most of the contributors: corruption, s3xual exploitation, and a lack of fellow feeling for those outside their tribe.
"Our objective in the short-term is to help the regional armies control their territory, especially the fragile border zones," said the diplomat. "The grinding of the peace processor is not going fast enough even if there is a glimmer of hope."

French officials acknowledge that Gay Paree is likely to have to keep its forces in the region for an indefinite period.

Diplomats said Macron wanted to fine-tune policy to ensure countries were also given more help to develop rather than just focusing on security aspects.

With La Belle France shouldering the bulk of European military operations overseas, and in particular in Africa, officials said the trip would also be an opportunity to outline his desire for a greater European role, something that La Belle France has been pushing for years, but with few tangible results.

"The Franco-German engine must give Europe impetus to play a bigger role in crucial dossiers such as the African Sahel," the diplomat said.
Link


Africa Subsaharan
Burkina links Ivory Coast Islamist militant with hotel attack in capital
2017-03-25
[AlAhram] An Islamist myrmidon accused of criminal masterminding a deadly attack in Ivory Coast is also suspected of having planned a major assault in Burkina Faso
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other...
's capital last year, a bigwig said Friday.

Ivorian officials believe Mimi Ould Baba Ould Cheikh organised the gun and grenade attack that left 19 people dead last March at the beach resort of Grand-Bassam, which is popular with foreigners.

Now he is also believed to have been "head of operations" for the attack on a hotel and cafe in Ouagadougou in January 2016 that killed 30 people, said Colonel Serge Alain Ouedraogo of the Burkinabe gendarmerie.

"The weapons and equipment for the attack were carefully hidden in the tyre of a truck that Mimi had sent to Burkina by his lieutenant Ibrahim Ould Mohammed," Ouedraogo told a presser.

The pair were locked away
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
 in Mali by troops from La Belle France's Barkhane anti-Islamist myrmidon force -- Mimi in January this year, and his alleged accomplice last May.

Both were formerly living in a refugee camp in Djibo, northern Burkina Faso, Ouedraogo said.

After their arrests, the Burkinabe security ministry sent officials to Mali's capital Bamako and "obtained their confession of their involvement" in the Ouagadougou assault, the colonel said.

Mimi confessed to being in contact with an aide to Algerian murderous Moslem Mokhtar Belmokhtar of the al-Murabitoun group, who offered him 10 millions CFA francs ($15,200, 15,000 euros) to carry out the "plan".
As of March al-Mourabitoune is one third of a new group called Group to Support Islam and Moslems, along with Ansar Dine and another group. They are affiliated with Al Qaeda in North Africa in opposition to the local ISIS affiliates.
"He came several weeks before the Ouagadougou attack in the company of a white man with the first name Abderrahmane, using Nigerian identity cards for a reconnaissance mission," Ouedraogo said.

They had photographed the Cappuccino cafe and Splendid Hotel that would later be targeted in the attacks, along with another restaurant that was not hit, he said.
Link


Africa North
Three jihadi groups active in Mali announce merger
2017-03-12
For information, the latest iteration of Al Qaeda-linked groups in Mali. They're as bad as Toad the Wet Sprocket in that part of the world.
[La Belle France24] Three jihadist groups operating in the Sahel region
... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas...
 of Africa have merged to form one single organization, Mauritania’s private news agency ANI said Thursday, citing a video distributed by the Islamists.
Video of the announcement can be seen at the link, for those curious about the current appearance of the miscreants.
Among the groups joining the merger south of the Sahara are Mali’s Al Qaeda-linked Ansar Dine
...a mainly Tuareg group that controlled areas of Mali's northern desert together with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and MUJAO in early 2012...
 and al-Murabitoun, led by Algerian myrmidon Mokhtar Belmokhtar.
...apparently the vicious, one-eyed cigarette smuggler is not dead yet, despite reports last November that the French had killed him.
The new movement will operate under the name the Group to Support Islam and Moslems, and will be led by Ansar Dine’s Iyag Ag Ghaly, ANI said, adding that it had received the video Wednesday.

The Macina Brigades group, active in central Mali, has also joined the merger.

"It is very particular to see them all together," said Wassim Nasr, La Belle France 24’s expert on jihadist movements.

ANI distributed a screenshot of the video showing five jihadist leaders seated together, with Iyad Ag Ghaly in the centre.

The four others were identified as the "emirs" of the new movement.

"What they are doing here is also against the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
 in the region, which is gaining in force," Nasr said. "They are confirming their presence there."

The ability of such key players in local terror groups to meet freely is notable. "It shows that it is impossible to monitor this huge region militarily and even with technical means," said Nasr.

In an audio excerpt Iyad Ag Ghaly can be heard swearing allegiance to slain Jordanian jihadist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi ‐ whose Al Qaeda in Iraq group later evolved into the Islamic State group ‐ and Ayman al-Zawahiri
... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area assuming he's not dead like Mullah Omar. He lost major face when he ordered the nascent Islamic State to cease and desist and merge with the orthodx al-Qaeda spring, al-Nusra...
, Al Qaeda’s current leader.

He can also be heard praising Al Qaeda founder the late Osama bin Laden
... who doesn't live anywhere anymore...
, who was killed in Pakistain in May 2011.

It was not clear when the video was recorded, though ANI said it was "recent".

All three groups already had ties to Al Qaeda, and were involved in an onslaught that saw northern Mali fall out of government control for nearly a year from spring 2012.

The snuffies were later expelled from the region by a French-led international military intervention.

Nonetheless large swathes of northern Mali continue to come under attack from jihadist groups.

The area is also seen by governments battling the jihadist threat as a launchpad for attacks against other countries in the region.
Link


Africa Subsaharan
Niger Declares Emergency in Areas Flanking Restive Mali
2017-03-04
[AnNahar] Niger on Friday declared a state of emergency in several western areas flanking Mali after a spate of deadly attacks blamed on jihadists from its restive neighbour.

A government statement read on state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
said a state of emergency would be enforced in seven departments of the regions of Tillaberi and Tahoua.

Security forces would now be granted additional powers including the right to search homes at any time, it said.

The statement said repeated attacks in these areas "have endangered the security of the peaceful population and public order."

The zones affected are "Ouallam, Ayorou, Bankilare, Abala and Banibangou in Tillaberi and Tassara and Tilia in Tahoua".

Tillaberi and Tahoua have witnessed several deadly attacks on army posts and refugee camps, blamed by authorities on Malian jibadists linked to the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) group.
...one of Al Qaeda in North Africa's Mali affiliates, known for drugs and arms trafficking, kidnapping, and the occasional newsworthy attack in southern Algeria and northern Mali, a.k.a. the Azawad. Established in 2011, one faction of MUJAO became known as Al Mourabitoun and related names after merging with Mokhtar Belmokhtar's Masked Battalion in 2013, while the rump organization retains the MUJAO designation. The Black African-led (Hausa) group participated in the Tuareg rebellion along with other jihadi groups, and peaked with the conquest of the Malian city of Konna before being driven into the mountains by a combined French and Mali force in 2013.
These include a late February attack in Ouallam which killed 16 soldiers and maimed 18. And in October, 22 soldiers died in Tahoua during a daring assault on a refugee camp.
Link


Africa North
Burkina Leader Fine-Tunes Govt. to Face Jihadist Threat
2017-02-22
[AnNahar] Burkina Faso
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other...
's President Roch Marc Christian Kabore has given government ministers specific responsibility for security and defense in a reshuffle officially announced on state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
National security will be separated from other home affairs in the new government of the west African country, which since 2015 has been vulnerable to attacks by jihadists in the Sahel region
... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas...
The portfolio for defense and armed forces veterans, traditionally held by the head of state, was handed to Jean Claude Bouda, a politician close to Kabore previously in charge of youth, said the announcement late Monday.

The ministry of security, territorial administration and decentralization was split in two. Simon Compaore, ex-mayor of the capital Ouagadougou and a top official in the ruling People's Movement for Progress, becomes wholly responsible for national security while the other two portfolios have been handed to newcomer Simeon Sawadogo.

Islamist gunnies on January 15, 2016 stormed two hotels and a cafe and bar in Ouagadougou frequented by Westerners, who were prime targets among the 30 people killed. More than 50 others were maimed in the raids, which ended with a counter-attack the next day by government forces.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) grabbed credit for the attacks, saying the gunnies were from the al-Murabitoun group of Algerian krazed killer Mokhtar Belmokhtar.

The new Burkinabe government has 32 members including five new ministers, compared with 30 members in the previous team appointed by Kabore in January last year.

Ministers in the key posts of foreign affairs, economy and finance, justice and energy all kept their portfolios, but Energy Minister Alpha Oumar Dissa also saw his ministry divided, with responsibility for the mining sector going to newcomer Oumarou Idani.
Link


Africa North
Sahel leaders agree new joint counter-terror force
2017-02-08
[AlAhram] Troops from five Sahel countries plan to set up a new counter-terror force in the region, where alarm over the jihadist threat is mounting, leaders said Monday in Mali's capital.

The announcement came as leaders of the Sahel G5 states -- Burkina Faso
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other...
, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger -- that describe themselves as "in the frontline against terrorism", met to discuss the desert zone's perilous security situation.

The gathering took place barely three weeks after the worst attack in the region for years, the January 18 suicide kaboom in the northern Malian city of Gao that left almost 80 people dead.

"To better combat terrorism in G5 countries, we have decided to implement the creation of a G5 force," President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger told a presser.

There was no word on the number of troops the force would have or where they would be stationed.

Issoufou said a United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
 resolution and Security Council approval would be requested before the force could be formed.

Chad's President Idriss Deby said European nations would be asked for aid for the transnational project.

"What we want is for European countries to give us the means. We are going to be on the front line ourselves in the fight against terrorism," said Deby, speaking as current G5 chief.

Some 3,500 French troops are already stationed in the Sahel region
... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas...
 as part of counter-terror efforts against an increasingly nimble array of Islamist groups, some of which are aligned with al-Qaeda.

Hundreds of Europeans too are serving with the 12,000-strong UN peacekeeper force stationed in Mali, which has become the UN's most dangerous operation in two decades with 70 lives lost.

The new G5 deployment would "save the lives of (European) soldiers", Deby added.

The Chadian leader said earlier in the day that the Sahel region risked becoming "a space for terrorists" unless immediate, co-ordinated action was taken.

"The multiplication of terrorist attacks in the Sahel" shows the threat "has new proportions", Deby warned.

Chad and Niger are currently battling Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
, while jihadists in late 2015 and early 2016 struck tourist spots in Mali, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast.

Experts say attacks mounted by jihadists and gangs are on the rise and are increasingly targeting civilians in the largely desert zone.

January's deadly attack in the northern Malian city of Gao was claimed by Algerian jihadist and al-Qaeda ally Mokhtar Belmokhtar.

Northern Mali was described as a "known hideout for terrorists" in an internal G5 document seen by AFP.

"It is also a launchpad for attacks against other countries," the document said.

"We need to co-ordinate our efforts to rise up to the challenge," said Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, whose nation is struggling with jihadists who use its vast northern stretches as a launchpad for attacks.

Mauritania was once plagued by Islamist attacks within its borders, but has made significant security gains.
Link


Africa Subsaharan
14 pro government militia die in Mali
2017-01-23
[al-Manar] A pro-government militia in Mali said that it had lost 14 fighters in an attack blamed on former rebels Saturday, three days after a suicide car bomber left more than 70 dead.

Some 77 people were killed and 120 wounded in the suicide blast Wednesday which targeted a camp in northern Gao housing former rebels and pro-government militia — who are signatories to a 2015 peace accord struck with the government.

Hundreds of people gathered in the capital Bamako Saturday to pay their respects to victims of the attack on the last of three days of national mourning called by President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

The attack, Mali’s worst in years, was claimed by the group of Algerian terrorist Mokhtar Belmokhtar, allied to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

The attack occurred as former rebels from the Tuareg-led CMA movement prepared to go on a joint patrol with pro-government militia members under the terms of the peace deal.

Despite hopes of unity in the wake of the blast, fresh clashes broke out Saturday between groups that have signed up to the agreement, according to the pro-government group GATIA (the Imghad and Allies Tuareg Self-Defence Group).

A post near Tin-Assako in the northeastern Kidal region was attacked Saturday, GATIA secretary general Fahad Ag Almahoud said, accusing “elements of the CMA” — referring to ex-rebels from the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA).

The information was confirmed by a Kidal resident reached by telephone, but the CMA did not immediately respond to the allegations.

The United Nations has deployed 13,000 troops in Mali while France, the former colonial power, has an additional 4,000 soldiers stationed there.

The UN Security Council agreed last week to consider setting up a sanctions regime for Mali to punish those who are hindering efforts to implement the 2015 peace accord.
Link


Africa North
U.S. Says French Strike Likely Killed al-Qaida Ally Belmokhtar
2016-11-29
[AnNahar] Algerian myrmidon Mokhtar Belmokhtar, one of al-Qaeda's key allies in North Africa, is thought to have been killed in a French air strike, a U.S. official said Monday.

The official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, confirmed a report in the Wall Street Journal that U.S. intelligence had helped La Belle France target the jihadist.

Belmokhtar, notorious commander of an al-Qaeda-linked faction of the al-Murabitoun jihadist group, has been reported killed on several previous occasions.

But the official told AFP the latest strike is believed finally to have killed the elusive one-eyed myrmidon, known for kidnapping European citizens for ransom.

According to the Wall Street Journal report, citing experts and unnamed officials, the strike reflects closer U.S. and French intelligence cooperation.

Belmokhtar became one of the world's most desperados in January 2013 after a spectacular assault on the In Amenas gas plant in Algeria left at least 38 hostages dead.

This year, his group grabbed credit for an attack on luxury a hotel in Burkina Faso
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other...
 that killed another 20 people, most of them foreigners.

And reports he had arrived in Libya have fuelled concern that jihadists will take advantage of the political turmoil there to establish a base of operations.

Washington put a $5 million bounty on the 44-year-old's head, dubbing him the leader of the Khaled Abu al-Abbas Brigade, also known as the "Signatories in Blood."

In May last year, he insisted al-Murabitoun remained loyal to al-Qaeda, despite another of its leaders pledging allegiance the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
 group.

Belmokhtar was born on June 1, 1972 in the ancient desert city of Ghardaia, 370 miles (600 kilometers) south of the Algerian capital.

- 'Mister Marlboro' -
In a rare 2007 interview he said he joined the mujahideen rebels fighting the Soviet forces in Afghanistan in 1991 when he was barely 19 years old.

In Afghanistan, he claimed, he lost an eye to shrapnel and had his first contact with the group that became al-Qaeda, eventually rising to a senior position.

He returned to Algeria in 1993, a year after the Algiers government sparked civil war by cancelling an election that an Islamist party was poised to win.

He joined the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), and thrived thanks to his intimate knowledge of the remote deserts of southern Algeria, northern Mali and Niger.

In 1998 the "Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat
... now known as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb...
" (GSPC) broke from the GIA and Belmokhtar went with them.

Nine years later, GSPC formally adopted the global ideology of Saudi-born jihadist kingpin the late Osama bin Laden
... who is now sometimes referred to as Mister Bones...
 and renamed itself al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

Belmokhtar was best known as a smuggler, known by some as "Mister Marlboro" for trafficking cigarettes.

But in 2013 he emerged as the hardline leader of the "Signatories in Blood," blamed for attacks across the Sahara and the Sahel in Algeria, Mali, Chad and Niger.
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