2023-05-24 19:36:00
Dressed in a light blue robe and a black turban, Iyad Ag Ghali could be seen at the beginning of the year surrounded by various leaders from the eastern region of Maliborder with Niger. It is one of the last public appearances of the leader of the JNIM (Support Front for Islam and Muslims)a terrorist and criminal group that operates in the Sahel and the gulf of Guinea under the banner of Al Qaeda. With this image, broadcast by a propaganda channel of the organization, they tried to show that they have the support of various Tuareg groups in the Ménaka region.
Iyad Ag Ghali is one of the terrorists world’s most wanted and the French newspaper The world considers him the number one enemy of France in the Sahel. The organization he leads nation in 2017 and is a compendium of alliances of various Salafi groups that had been operating in the region for years (Ansar Dine, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in the Sahel, the ‘katiba’ Macina and the ‘katiba’ Al Murabitun). This organization has managed to control a significant part of northern Mali, vast desert areas with scattered populations that are beyond the control of the Bamako authorities.
The JNIM and especially its leader They have known how to play with the complex fabric of alliances and tribal and ethnic disputes that exist in the area with the aim of gaining more followers and land. They also try to present themselves as guarantors of security and resources in the absence of the State. This terrorist group was behind an attack last April at the Sevaré airport in which 10 civilians died after the explosion of several vehicles loaded with explosives. That same month they also attacked a Malian Army convoy in the central part of the country, killing 10 soldiers.
Behind these attacks under the supposedly jihadist flag, this terrorist group tries to control the land with the aim of consolidating the criminal activities with which it enriches its coffers: drug trafficking and kidnappings. According to the Sahel expert, Bea Mesa, the actions of these groups are motivated by the money collected from these illegal activities.
The expansion of the JNIM
The long and porous borders between Mali, Niger y Burkina Faso They have also made it easier for this criminal group to move its networks further and further away and one of the objectives they pursue is to extend their influence to the countries of the Gulf of Guinea, such as Beninin which in recent years they have already staged attacks and attacks.
“The expansion of the territorial branches in West Africa of the Islamic State and Al Qaeda towards the Gulf of Guinea is yet another example of how instability and insecurity are crossing borders to end up infecting some countries and others as the terrorist groups establish bridges that make it possible to connect their main centers of activity”, according to the latest yearbook of the International Observatory for Studies on Terrorism.
The dispute with the Islamic State
The faction led by Iyad Ag Ghali has suffered, for years, the competition of the self-styled Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (EIGS)). This affiliate of the organization that was born in the Middle East is the other major threat plaguing the region. They began to act in this area in 2015, although the first relevant attack was, two years later, when they killed in Niger five local and four American soldiers. This terrorist group has been gaining strength in the region and has increasingly attacked more countries.
An expansion that has caused friction with the other major criminal and terrorist group. Although at certain times there have been non-aggression agreements between them, in recent months the JNIM and the EIGS They have been involved in important confrontations, which on occasions have resulted in dozens of casualties. This rise in violence between them responds to an increase in the presence of the Islamic State affiliate in territories formerly controlled by the JNIM.
Los last recorded matches took place last April in Mali and Burkina Faso. In one of these combats, some 20 terrorists died and, according to the information available, the trigger was that the EIGS tried to exercise control over two Burkinabe towns, according to the International Observatory for Terrorism Studies.
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