The Nigerien Iliassou Djibo, nicknamed Petit Chaporé, was killed in late October in a fratricidal skirmish between jihadists active in the Sahel.
By Abdou Cissé
Wanted by several Sahelian and Western intelligence services, Iliassou Djibo alias Petit Chaporé was reportedly killed at the end of October in clashes between the Islamic State in the Sahel and the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), in eastern Mali, not far from the border with Niger.
Several Nigerien media outlets as well as specialists on jihadist groups have confirmed his death.
However, security sources contacted by APA prefer to remain cautious.
“According to my information, he did not even take part in the clashes between the EIS and the GSIM,” said one of them.
In any case, his death would be a blow to the Sahel branch of the Islamic State.
A former member of the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), a group created in 2011 by the Mauritanian jihadist Hamada Ould Mohamed Heirou, then on a break with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Malian Arab Ahmed Tilemsi, Petit Chaporé was a militant in Almurabitoune, which was formed in 2013 from a merger of MUJAO and the Blood Signatories Brigade of Algerian jihadist Mokhtar Belmokhtar.
Wanted by the US
When Adnan Abou Sahraoui pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in 2015, he relied on men like Iliassou Djibo to form the core of the branch of the “Islamic Caliphate” proclaimed by Abu Bakr al Baghdadi in Iraq.
On 4 October 2017, American special forces and Nigerien soldiers were ambushed by Islamist insurgents.
The toll was heavy.
Eight soldiers were killed, including four Americans and four Nigeriens.
On 12 January 2018, Adnan Abou Walid al Sahraoui (AWAS) claimed responsibility for the ambush, noting that his group’s aura with the central command of the Islamic State, whose Syrian-Iraqi provinces were in trouble.
The Americans launched the “Reward for justice” programme to track down the perpetrators of this attack and offered up to 5 million dollars for any information facilitating their capture.
But Petit Chaporé escaped the multiple operations of the French military aimed at the EIS command in 2021, which led to the killing in August of Adnan Abou Walid al Sahroui, with the help of the Americans.
Very active on the border between Mali and Niger, the jihadist is said to have played an important role in the rise of EIS in eastern Mali and the abuses against civilians in the region.
AC/lb/as/APA