mali: France claims capture of senior IS figure in Mali

PARIS: French troops in Mali have captured a senior member of the Sahel affiliate of the Islamic State group, the French navy mentioned Wednesday.
The arrest comes as France prepares to finish its withdrawal from Mali after virtually a decade battling a jihadist insurgency within the nation with the French-led Barkhane anti-insurgency drive.
“Within the night time of 11-12 June, an operation of the Barkhane drive allowed the seize of Oumeya Ould Albakaye, a senior determine within the Islamic State within the Higher Sahara (IS-GS),” a spokesman for the chief of workers instructed AFP.
The operation, carried out close to the border with Niger, took weeks of preparation involving air drive and floor military items, the defence ministry in Paris mentioned.
Albakaye might be held by French forces for questioning for a number of days after which handed to the Malian authorities, the navy added.
A safety supply who requested to not be named instructed AFP that Albakaye had as soon as been seen as a possible successor to former IS-GS chief Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi, who was killed by French forces in August 2021.
An explosives professional, Albakaye was a regional chief within the group, commanding the areas of Gourma in Mali and Oudalan in neighbouring Burkina Faso.
He’s accountable for numerous abuses towards civilians in these international locations, the navy mentioned.
France is to finish its withdrawal from Mali inside the subsequent few months when its primary navy base at Gao might be returned to Malian forces.
– ‘Re-positioning’ – On Wednesday the French defence ministry referred to as the seize of Albakaye “one other success for the Barkhane drive, which is pursuing its combat towards armed terrorist teams whereas re-positioning itself outdoors Mali”.
Relations between Mali and France plummeted after the navy seized energy in Bamako in August 2020.
The junta has resisted setting an early date to revive civilian rule and tightened ties with Moscow, bringing in “navy instructors” that France and its allies condemn as mercenaries employed from the pro-Kremlin Wagner group.
For a lot of the earlier decade, France had been Mali’s staunchest ally in its combat towards jihadists who’ve claimed hundreds of lives and pushed tons of of hundreds from their properties.
France started its anti-jihadist operations within the Sahel in 2013, serving to Mali, its former colony, to snuff out a revolt within the north.
However the jihadists regrouped to assault the unstable centre of the nation, initiating a full insurgency that elected president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was unable to interrupt.
In August 2020, protests towards Keita culminated in a coup by disgruntled colonels — a transfer adopted by a second navy takeover in Could 2021.
Relations with France stored deteriorating, propelled by the junta’s resistance to setting an early date to revive civilian rule and by Bamako’s expenses that France was inciting the area to take a tough line towards it.
In January this 12 months, the French ambassador to Bamako was expelled and the next month France introduced the pullout of its troops from Mali, and people of the French-led Takuba drive which contains practically 1,000 troopers drawn principally from EU international locations.
An unknown is the affect of the turmoil on the United Nations’ peacekeeping drive in Mali (MINUSMA), which with 14,000 troops and police is likely one of the greatest UN operations on this planet.