Oumeya Ould Albakaye, the Islamic State in the capital of the Greater Sahara in the two provinces of Mali and Burkina Faso was arrested in an overnight operation this week.
French troops operating on the border between Mali and Niger have arrested a senior figure of the Islamic State in the Great Sahara (ISGS), Paris authorities said.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the French Ministry of Armed Forces said Oumeya Ould Albakaye was arrested during the night of June 11-12 by Operation Barkhane – a French military operation launched in the Sahel region since 2013.
According to the statement, the military operation began a few weeks ago, involving the air force and a ground unit. The military added that several mobile phones and weapons were seized.
Albakaye is the leader of ISGS, a group affiliated with ISIL (ISIS), in the provinces of Gourma and Oudalan, two regions in Mali and Burkina Faso respectively. The French military said Britain was also responsible for coordinating the network that carried out explosive devices.
ISGS was founded in 2015 by Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi, who was killed last September.
Mali has been ravaged by violence for a decade, especially in the area bordering Niger and Burkina Faso. In 2013, France intervened to quell an uprising in the north. But insurgents rallied to attack the volatile heartland of the country, initiating a full-blown uprising that President-elect Ibrahim Boubacar Keita failed to brake.
In August 2020, protests against Keita peaked coup by disgruntled colonels in the Malian army – a move that was followed by a second military takeover in May 2021.
From that point on, relations with France deteriorated gradually, spurred on by military resistance to an early date for civilian restoration and Bamako’s accusations that France was agitating other countries. Neighbors in the region take a hard line against their military regime.
Things took a turn for the worse in 2021 as Mali’s army deepened ties with Moscow, bringing in “military instructors” whom France and its allies call mercenaries hired from the pro-Wagner group Kremlin.
In January of this year, the French ambassador to Bamako was expelled and the following month, France announced the withdrawal of its troops from Mali, and those in the French-led Takuba force.
While the military initially pledged to return power to civilians by February 2022, on Monday it pushed the date to March 24 – a move that has unwelcome of the regional organization ECOWAS, who imposed sanctions on Mali.
