The head of the jihadist group of the Islamic State of the Great Sahara (Eigs), Adnan Abou Walid al-Sahrawi has been "neutralized" by French forces. This was announced by French President Emmanuel Macron on Twitter.
"This is another great success in our fight against terrorist groups in the Sahel," added the French president.
The EIGS is considered responsible for most of the attacks in the three border area, straddling Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.
The Elysée confirmed that the leader of the Sahara Isis, active between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, was "killed".
Al-Sahrawi was born in El Aaiún, Morocco, a disputed area of Western Sahara, to a wealthy family of merchants who fled to Algeria. As a young man he joined the Polisario Front, then after graduating in Algeria he joined the Sahrawi Youth Union in 1998. In 2010 he joined an al-Qaeda faction in the Islamic Maghreb, soon becoming its spokesperson.
In 2013, he called himself the head of an organization called the Mujahideen Shura Council in Gao, Mali. In 2015 he declared his loyalty to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Numerous attacks, including western ones, in the 'three border area' are traced back to him, so much so that on 4 October 2019, the United States offered those who had provided information about him a 5 million dollar bounty.