“The confrontation has entered a new phase.” In a video broadcast on December 12, Iyad Ag-Ghali, the head of JNIM (Support Group for Islam and Muslims) in Mali, stated his objectives with regard to the new situation in the Sahel. While the French army withdrew from the area, pushed out by the military juntas in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, the Islamist leader castigated these “treacherous powers” and their new “infidel allies”, the Russian mercenaries.
In this video – the first since 2017 – of more than 2 minutes, Iyad Ag-Ghaly, one of the main jihadist leaders in the Sahel, denounces “the massacres of the FAMA and Wagner”, as well as of Captain Traoré, head of the junta in Burkina Faso. Reading his press release from behind his HP computer, the Islamist leader evokes the fate of civilians who, “in this bloody period (…) find themselves between the anvil of the extremists and the hammer of the army, apostasy and mercenaries by Wagner,” translated Arabic-speaking specialist Wassim Nasr. He affirms that the alliance with Russia will be a loser, just like the one with “disbelieving France”, whose presence “led to the expansion of jihad”.
The Islamist leader ends his speech with the conflict between Israel and Hamas, which began “9 weeks ago” – which attests to the recency of the recording. He thanks in particular the Malian imams who refused secularism and supported “the mujahideen of Gaza”.
The Malian jihadist is making this speech while an ever-increasing number of abuses by local armed forces and their Russian auxiliaries are being reported in the Sahel. The NGO Human Right Watch regularly documents summary executions, disappearances of civilians, looting and torture.
After fighting for the Tuareg cause within the rebellions that appeared in the 1990s in northern Mali, Yiad Ag-Ghali entered the jihadist fight by founding a subsidiary of al-Qaeda in the Sahel, which wants to impose sharia law. . With the EIGS linked to Daesh, the JNIM was fought by French soldiers of operations Serval then Barkhane between 2013 and 2019, before they were pushed aside by the putschist authorities of the Sahelian states.
Since the departure of French soldiers, Iyad Ag-Ghlai, who was one of the main targets, “has greater freedom of action and activity”, explaining this new speech, notes journalist Wassim Nasr on France 24. As part of this “new phase” of the fighting which is beginning, the jihadist leader therefore announces to fight not only the EIGS, a competing jihadist group, but also the Russian ally, and declares to open his ranks to numerous recruits.
