Macina Liberation Front: Qatar’s terrorist arm in Mali

Nora Bandari

Through the Operation Barkhane, French forces continue their more than six-year-long operation in pursuit of militant groups on the African coast. They are confronting these groups, particularly in Mali, because there is more than one terrorist movement that benefits from Qatari support, whether through logistical assistance or direct financial contributions under the cover of charitable and humanitarian organizations active there.

However, Operation Barkhane has not yet been able to completely eliminate the terrorist groups deployed in the Sahel, as it has been unable to paralyze the opponent’s logistical capabilities, which will undoubtedly lead to renewed fighting at any moment.

AFP published on August 30 a statement from the Operation Barkhane forces explaining they carried out operations against terrorists between the cities of Gao and Menaka in the West African country of Mali and the areas adjacent to them, stressing that the implementation of these operations enhances the operational military partnership between the operation forces and the Malian armed forces. The statement added that they were able to eliminate about 15 terrorists from the Macina Liberation Front, which has proved to be obtaining means of support from Doha.

Qatar’s arm

The Macina Liberation Front (MFL) is Qatar’s tool to support al-Qaeda in Mali as part of its attempts to destabilize the region. Doha has in recent years supported the MLF with the aim of directing attacks on French troops in northern Mali, which it considers as its second adversary after the Malian forces. Many of the MLF fighters had previously joined the Ansar Dine terrorist movement, which French forces had managed to drive out of northern Mali.

The mayor of the city of Gao, Sado Diallo, said that Doha is working to finance the militants through the airports of Gao and Timbuktu under the cover of humanitarian and food aid, stressing that among the beneficiaries of the Qatari assistance is the Movement for Unification and Jihad in West Africa, a branch of the Macina group, which also depends on funding from kidnapping and the drug and weapons trade.

The Qatari support for Macina comes in the form of humanitarian aid and the support of non-governmental organizations as part of its efforts to re-establish the so-called Fulani Empire, which dates back to the nineteenth century, by adopting violent ideology and by trying to attract Fulani elements in countries such as Senegal, Niger and Mauritania, as well as Mali.

Macina’s rising activity may exacerbate the already collapsed security situation in the country, especially because it is pushing for the escalation of ethnic conflict. This is because of the ideas adopted by the jihadist Amadou Koufa, a hardline preacher from the town of Mopti in central Mali. These ideas added an ethnic dimension to the dimensions of the conflict in a country where tribal tensions are widespread.

After the French General Staff announced in November 2018 that 30 terrorists had been killed during a military operation in central Mali, including Amadou Koufa, commander of the Macina Liberation Front, Koufa then appeared in a video speaking to journalists from Qatar’s Al-Jazeera, in both Arabic and English. His appearance confirms the close cooperation between the Qatar regime and Macina.

On February 21, the French force killed Jamal Okasha, better known as Yahya Abu Hammam, the number two in the largest terrorist alliance linked to al-Qaeda in the Sahel, who was the leader of the Sahara Emirate of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. The number two in the coalition is the Malian Iyad Ag-Ghaly, the leader of Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin.