The man was perceived as the absolute leader of Jihad in North Africa and the Sahel, the emir of the emirs of Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Algerian Abdelmalek Droukdel finally died in the northern reaches of Mali, killed in a French army operation. Announced Friday evening by the Minister of the Armies Florence Parly, the disappearance of this Islamist is without any doubt a clear victory for the operation Barkhane.
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A fighter from the start, a figure of radical African Islamism, he was a symbol of the jihadist grip on this part of the globe. His death comes a few months after the Pau summit, where France and the Sahelian countries had announced their intention to step up the fight against extremist movements and garner " victories ".
“ However, the reality of its power over groups in the Sahel is not clear. He probably no longer had a real role on the ground, ”said a source close to the Algerian services, who compared him to a sort of“ distant father ”. Abdelmalek Droukdel a fairly classic " career " of the jihadists of the time. He was born in 1971 in Meftah, a poor town in the great suburbs of Algiers. A good student, he joined an engineering school in Blida when the civil war broke out in Algeria.
His natural charisma, his brutality as well as his possible passage in Afghanistan, a journey never confirmed, earned him to join the ranks of the Armed Islamic GroupSympathetic to the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), he radicalized and joined in 1993 the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), where his scientific capabilities made him an expert in explosives. His natural charisma, his brutality as well as his possible passage in Afghanistan, a journey never confirmed, earned him to join the ranks of the movement. At the end of the 1990s, he participated in the founding of the Algerian GSPC (Salafist group for preaching and combat), under the leadership of Emir Hassan Hattab. The attacks are linked and Droukdel is sentenced to death several times. Relations within the GSPC will, however, quickly deteriorate. " Droukdel criticized Hattab for its extreme violence, " said the source.
Allegiance to Bin Laden
In 2003, shortly after the American invasion of Iraq, Droukdel and Nabil Sahraoui deposed the head of the GSPC. Droukdel will take the lead alone after Sahraoui's death and give a more internationalist inclination to the movement. The GSPC, which controls areas in Kabylia and in southern Algeria, is increasing attacks, putting pressure on populations and training combatants for global jihad. He got closer to Bin Laden and then swore allegiance to him in 2006 by founding AQIM. He then took the nickname of Abou Moussaab Abdel Ouadoud, in honor of Jordanian Abou Moussaab Al-Zarkaoui, the head of al-Qaida in Iraq, of which he makes his reference.
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AQMi is then at the peak of its power in Algeria. In the years that followed, his grip was relaxed as the Algerian army gained ground and the policy of national reconciliation advocated by the authorities diverted the combatants. Droukdel also fails in his attempt to federate under his hand the various Maghreb Islamist movements. Little by little AQIM's actions will be concentrated more and more towards the south and the Sahel from which most of the funds now come. The war that broke out in Mali in 2012, where the group and its allies occupied for a few months a large part of the territory, will consecrate the Sahel as the new land of African jihad. The intervention of the French army in early 2013 will further reinforce this trend. " Droukdel, who does not know this region will see his authority fade in favor of local chiefs and particularly of Iyad ag Ghaly who is a Malian Tuareg ", assures a Malian official.
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Discovered in 2013 in Timbuktu and unveiled by RFI, a document signed by Droukdel is the mark of this weakening. None of the recommendations he made there, in particular prudence with regard to foreign powers, would not be followed. Droukdel, who was said to be buried in Kabylia, shows himself more and more distant. In 2017, he was absent from the video announcing the creation of the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), a group that encompasses several Sahelian movements under the orders of Iyad ag Ghaly. GSIM is affiliated with AQIM, but that seems symbolic. Droukdel had not given any sign of life for more than two years, to the point that in 2019 some had announced his disappearance. It did not actually take place until a year later.