Al Qaeda group claims series of attacks across Sahel
Several attacks in both Mali and Burkina Faso were claimed by al Qaeda’s jihadist conglomerate JNIM.
Several attacks in both Mali and Burkina Faso were claimed by al Qaeda’s jihadist conglomerate JNIM.
The ambush marks one of the deadliest attacks inside Burkina Faso, which is part of the growing jihadist violence inside the country.
In a military operation yesterday, the French reportedly killed a top Tuareg commander for the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara in Mali’s northern Menaka region.
Sultan Ould Bady, a veteran jihadist within various al Qaeda groups in Mali and later the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, turned himself in to the Algerian military yesterday.
Rising communal violence in both northern and central Mali further weakens the already fragile state, which in turn, further helps jihadists exploit these problems for their own gain.
Only days after a suicide assault on an African military base in central Mali, another suicide car bombing hit French Barkhane troops in the northern city of Gao.
This is the second video released by ISGS’ Katibat Salahadin in the span of a week, marking a significant uptick in social media activity for the jihadist group.
Burkina Faso’s wanted list gives more information into the inner-workings and operations of Ansaroul Islam, a relatively under-researched and little understood al Qaeda-linked jihadist group.
The weekend clashes are the latest in a series of skirmishes and inter-communal killings between the two Tuareg militias and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara.
Months after killing four US Special Forces soldiers, the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara has been designated as a terrorist group by the US government. Its leader, Abu Walid al Sahrawi, was also designated today.
Intercommunal eye for an eye killings have been increasing in the past week with dozens of Tuaregs and Fulani being killed on both sides of the Mali-Niger border. The massacres come in the backdrop of ongoing counterterrorism operations against the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara.
Today’s claims of responsibility are the first for the group in Burkina Faso since 2016.
French special forces took part in a large-scale joint operation with Malian and Nigerien troops, alongside Tuareg militias, against militants of the so-called Islamic State in the Greater Sahara on April 1.
Sunday’s clashes between the Tuarag alliance and Islamic State-loyal militants in northern Mali is the first since early last month.
The recent battle comes less two weeks after the Tuareg militias last clashed with militants from the so-called Islamic State in the Greater Sahara.
The operations, which occurred alongside French special forces, were to reportedly kill or capture Abu Walid al Sahrawi, the leader of the so-called Islamic State in the Greater Sahara.
At least 276 attacks in Mali and its neighboring countries were linked al Qaeda in 2017. This includes a significant shift of violence to central Mali, as well as northern Burkina Faso.
US AFRICOM has confirmed that three US Special Forces troops have been killed in an ambush near Mali. The three are the first American soldiers to die in combat in the country.
The coordinated assault blamed on jihadists has left nearly a dozen Burkinabe soldiers dead.
The Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) has claimed its second attack in two months. Both reportedly occurred in the same area of northern Burkina Faso near the border with Mali.
The claim, if it is confirmed, marks the first Islamic State attack in the Sahel.