France deals a blow to jihadism in the Sahel with the death of an Al Qaeda leader in Mali

A French soldier flies in a military helicopter over one of Mali's areas in May 2017.Christophe Petit Tesson / AP

France has announced the death in an operation of a key figure of jihadism in the Sahel.

Bah Ag Moussa, military head of the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), an Al Qaeda affiliate in Mali, was "neutralized" last Tuesday by French forces deployed in the Ménaka region, as reported Defense Minister Florence Parly in a statement.

The operation is a "great success in the fight against terrorism that France is carrying out with its allies in the Sahel," said Parly, who highlighted the high profile of the jihadist killed.

According to this minister, the terrorist was one of the "main lieutenants" of the head of JNIM, Iyad Ag Ghali, another heavyweight of jihadism in the region.

The Tuareg Bah Ag Moussa, alias

, was also one of the historical figures of the jihadist movement in the Sahel.

After playing a prominent role in several Tuareg rebellions in the 1990s and 2000s, this ex-military member of the Malian forces, who deserted several times until finally leaving the Army in 2012 to plunge into the jihadist struggle, is, according to France, "responsible numerous attacks against Malian and international forces ”.

Among others, he was considered the author of two attacks against Malian forces in 2016 and 2019 that caused more than 20 deaths each, according to Agence France Presse.

His name also appeared in connection with various attacks this year.

In his statement, Parly recalled for his part that Ag Moussa was also in charge of “training new recruits.” Both the United Nations and Washington had included him on their terrorism blacklists.

A radicalized Malian soldier

Like so many other Tuareg rebels, Bamoussa became a field soldier in Gaddafi's Libya.

The successive agreements that put an end to the independence rebellions that cyclically shook the north of Mali led him to join the national army, but he never abandoned his rebel convictions, which led him to desert up to two times.

He swore the flag in Bamako, but his loyalty was deposited with Iyad Ag Ghali, his commander, whom he followed not only in the rebellions, but also in the path of radicalization that led them to create one of the most fearsome jihadist groups in the Sahel.

In 2012, when radicals and Tuareg rebels unite to rise up against the Malian government unleashing a storm that still hits the Sahel, Bamoussa sided with his mentor and led bloody attacks.

His figure emerges in Menaka, Kidal, Tessalit or even Aguelhoc, where the jihadists committed one of the worst massacres in remembrance of Malian soldiers.

For him there was no turning back.

As Ag Ghali was gaining weight among the different terrorist groups, which he manages to bring together under his command in JNIM, Colonel Bamoussa became the operational leader, the strategist on the ground.

France's success in its war against jihadism

The high-level operation, which according to France involved “important intelligence assets as well as an interception device made up of helicopters and ground troops”, constitutes a “great success” in the fight against terrorism in the Sahel and provides a “ a new hard blow ”to extremist groups in the region.

Last June, France also announced the death of the leader of Al Qaeda in the Maghreb, the Algerian Abdelmalek Droukdal, in another military operation.

"Whether it is the Islamic State or Al Qaeda, France attacks those who, in the name of a deadly ideology, attack civilian populations and wish to destabilize the states of the region," Parly said in a statement delivered on the same day in that France commemorates the fifth anniversary of Bataclan, the deadliest attack on its territory to date.

The jihadist attacks of that fateful night of November 13, 2015 left 130 dead in Paris.

But the threat continues.

In the last two months, the Gallic country has also suffered new extremist attacks that have spread to Austria and that have left a total of eight dead in both countries.