Al-Qaeda terrorism sweeps Mali

Aya Ezz

Mali has recently witnessed an upsurge in violence. Al-Qaeda-affiliated Jamaat-ul-Islam wal Moslemeen claimed responsibility for all terrorist acts that took place in Mali over the course of September 2019, in a statement posted through one of its media outlets in Mali.

Al-Qaeda treats Mali as its most important terrorist stronghold in Africa, where it operates heavily in that country, specifically in Bamako, because of Mali’s distinct geographical location, which allows the terrorist organization’s members – through the Sahara – to travel to Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and some other African countries.

Base attendance

By confirming the baseline presence in Mali, the French Air Force rushed to save Paris’s interests in Bamako specifically, and in neighboring Mali countries in general. In 2013, French fighter jets bombed several al-Qaeda hideouts in northern Mali to prevent an emirate from being organized in Mali.

Security reports

It is clear from security reports issued by Mali that all the elements that Al-Qaeda in Mali depends on are young people, most of whom are unknown and have a high combat skill, so it is difficult to control or capture them, especially since most of them are mountainous in the Malian desert.

The reports indicated that these young men acted as solo wolves, carrying out major terrorist acts against army soldiers and neighboring Arab countries, then fleeing without being caught.

The reports pointed out that the local security authorities were unable to control them, because of their speed to escape, and carrying out operations at a terrible speed.

That is because they receive many foreign funding, and get weapons from terrorist organizations in Libya, and use extremist groups in Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, especially affiliated organizations like Al-Qaeda.

Blood base

In a poor video, al-Qaeda announced in 2017 the launch of a terrorist branch in Mali under the name of Nurset al-Islam wal Moslemeen and showed in the section a number of leaders of terrorist groups in the region, such as: Iyad Gary, leader of Ansar Eddine, and Jamal Okasha of the so-called Desert Front Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), also represented by Abderrahmane Senhaji, Abdelmalek Droudkal, nicknamed Abu Musab Abu Daoud, and the head of the Liberation Front of Massena Mohamed Koufa, and Hassan Ansari, a leader of the Mourabitoun affiliate led by Mokhtar Belmokhtar.

Less than a month after the participation of five countries in the region (Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso), the Nusret Islam Wal El Moslemeen Group was founded to establish a joint military force to fight terrorism in the region. It also coincided with France’s efforts to strengthen its presence on the border between Mali and Niger. After a surge in operations in the area, the most recent attack on a military patrol in which 15 soldiers were killed on 24 February 2017.

Two days after the announcement of the group, it carried out an attack on the ranks of the Malian army, which killed 11 people and wounded five, on March 5, 2017, and on 29 of the same month the group adopted another attack.

On April 5, the group killed a French soldier and o 18 of the following month the group fought a battle with the Malian army leaving 16 dead and 4 prisoners among the ranks of the organization.

On the other hand, 5 fell dead and about 20 were wounded among the ranks of the Malian army, and on July 18 of the same year the organization adopted an attack on the city of Bamako, which killed 8 including 4 civilians.