Fighting is raging between the regular army and jihadists in Mali, perhaps suggesting that the flames of jihadism are still burning bright in the desert sands of the country’s north.
Who won the battle of Anderamboukane?
Since March, jihadists from the Islamic State in the Sahel have been fighting the pro-government Tuareg Salvation Movement of Azawad (MSA) and the Imghad and Allied Self-Defence Group (Gatia), both of which are bcked by the Malian army.
The aim is to control this strategic area located 90 km from the Malian town of Ménaka, on the border with Niger.
Information from the area is difficult to verify in terms of who has gained the upper hand or is currently in a position of strength, as evidenced by the confusion that reigned after the offensive launched at the weekend by the pro-Bamako coalition.
These clashes reportedly resulted in a victory for the coalition, according to its leaders.
But local sources, who are generally well informed, dispute this and claim that the EIS is far from being overrun or defeated and that it still controls the locality.
However, since last year, a series of operations targeting the jihadist group suggested that it was deeply weakened.
The EIS has seen several of its leaders killed or captured by the French armed forces under Operation Barkhane, whose withdrawal announced in June 2021 by President Emmanuel Macron continues in a climate of diplomatic tension with Bamako, which accuses Paris of “abandonment in mid-air.”
The French achieved a master stroke on 17 August of the same year by killing, south of Indelimane, not far from the Nigerian border, Adnan Abou Walid al Sahraoui, whose real name was Lehbib Ould Ali Ould Said Ould Joumani, a former executive of the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (Mujao) and Almourabitoune of the Algerian Mokhtar Belmokhtar.
His death, confirmed a month later by the then French Minister of the Armed Forces, Florence Parly, was intended to demoralise the insurgents.
mBut less than a year later, the Islamic State affiliate is still active in the Sahel, trying to take over eastern Mali.
Under the leadership of Youssef Ould Chouaib, known as Abu Al Bara al Sahraoui, a Malian Arab who took command, of the group commonly known as “Islamic State in the Great Sahara” has been strengthened by becoming since 27 March 2022, the seventh province of the Islamic State in Africa.
It was previously under the authority of the Nigerian branch.
This rise in rank came on the heels of the designation of Abu al Hassan al Hachimi al Quraychi as the new “Caliph” of the Islamic State, replacing Abu Ibrahim al Hachimi al Quraychi, who was killed in October 2019 by the US army in Syria.
During this period, the Human Rights Division of the MINUSMA noted a deterioration in the security situation in the regions of Gao and Ménaka “due to armed clashes between elements of the MSA, GATIA and EIGS or attacks on civilians in several parts of Andéramboukane, notably in the localities of Garka, Ingarzabane, Inkalafanan, Inchinanan, Intakoreit, Itagoyit, Tamalat, Tilabagnachan, Tinahaket and Tingorof.”
According to the MINUSMA’s quarterly note from January 1 to March 31, 2022 on trends and human rights violations, “these clashes have, according to local authorities, resulted in the death of 264 civilians and the forced displacement of several hundred others to Ansongo, Gao, Ménaka and Tillabéri.”
However, the MINUSMA led investigations have identified 159 people killed.
On 21 March, MINUSMA also recorded targeted attacks by the Islamic State in the Sahel against the Dawssahak community in the area of Talataye (Ansongo circle, Gao region), in which around 100 people were reportedly killed.
The announced death of the head of the EI in the Sahel, confirmed to APA by journalist Wassim Nasr and several other sources, during a “banal” altercation with a Tuareg Dahssahak, did not put an end to this cycle of violence.
On 26 May, the MSA claimed to have gone to the aid of civilians persecuted in Emis-Emis by alleged elements of the Islamic State.
The fighting between its members and the armed Islamists is said to have resulted in more than thirty victims in the ranks of the latter.
On Sunday 5 June, new clashes broke out in Talghachert, 30 kilometres from Anderamboukane, when a patrol of the Platform of 14 June 2014 movements tried to dismantle a jihadist base not far from the border with Niger.
A source close to the self-defence groups maintains that these numerous security incidents are the result of the Islamic State’s desire to take advantage of the French withdrawal from Mali to control the Ménaka region.
At the same time, the Malian army is concentrating its efforts in the centre against the jihadists of the Macina Katiba of the Groupe de soutien à l’Islam et aux musulmans (GSIM) affiliated to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
AC/odl/te/lb/as/APA