End of the Qatari dream in Mali .. «Support of Islam» on the lists of terrorism

Abel Hady Rabea

The US State Department on Thursday (September, 6) listed the “Support for Islam and Muslims” group in Mali as a terrorist organization.

The State Department said in successive tweets on its official website, Twitter, that the listing decision came under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Law.

The foreign ministry added that the listing decision aims to deprive the group led by the Tuareg extremist in Mali, Ayad Ag Ghali, of its financial resources necessary to plan and carry out terrorist attacks, by banning all property of the group, and prohibiting US citizens from engaging in any transactions with them. “The group because of its links to al Qaeda is a deadly threat to the United States and its allies,” said the US State Department’s counterterrorism coordinator, Nathan Sills.

According to Dr. Abu Al-Fadl al-Isnawi, a researcher on terrorist groups in North Africa, at the Al-Ahram Center for Studies, US President Donald Trump, as part of his plan to combat terrorism, is trying to include the largest number of these terrorist organizations. The number of groups on the lists of terrorism is 51, according to the United States definition of terrorism.

Al-Isnawi said in a statement to El-Marga’a that «Trump» is trying to appeal to the American people, through the expansion of counter-terrorism operations. In addition to the attempts to reply to the statements of al-Qaeda leader «Ayman al-Zawahiri», and his call to fight Western interests, especially the American ones in North Africa.

Qatar has been involved in supporting radical Islamic groups active in northern Mali, led by the group «Support Islam and Muslims», according to a report in the French newspaper «Lucanar Onchini» in January 2013. The report says: Qatar has provided bags of dollars to groups active in northern Mali, in addition to financial and military assistance, and food through  Gao and Timbuktu airports, through the «Qatar Charity» organization.

The French newspaper said that the Qatari role exceeded financial and logistical support, as there are specialized security forces arrived to the north of Mali to participate in the training of elements of these armed groups.

The group of Support Muslims and Islam is active in the Sahel and Sahara region, targeting the French troops and the financial government. It carries out a series of attacks, most notably attacks on military bases in the northern city of Timbuktu, but they are being surrounded and expelled from areas beyond the control of French financial forces and the United Nations force (MINOSMA).

Because of its intellectual beliefs, the group prohibted participating in the July 2018 financial elections and threatened to target the election headquarters. The leader of the group, Eyad Ogh Ghali, appeared in a video in which he said: “These elections are nothing but mirages,  our people will only reap illusions, as they did before. ”

The terrorist group – composed of 500 terrorists in 2017 according to French intelligence estimates – claimed mortar shells fired at villages in northern Mali during the election process.