APA-Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) – This is not the first time that the State Department has targeted jihadist leaders operating in the Sahel.
The United States announced that it was freezing the assets and interests of Sidan ag Hitta (Hitta) and Jafar Dicko (Dicko), two Sahelian jihadist leaders close to al-Qaeda.
They accuse the jihadist leaders of having taken American citizens hostage in West Africa.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has formally identified “Hitta” and “Dicko” as “responsible for the kidnapping of an American national.”
The former is “in charge of the JNIM (Arabic acronym for the Support Group for Islam and Muslims) coordinating all negotiations concerning the release of Western hostages and gave instructions concerning the hostages held” by this al-Qaeda affiliate in Mali.
As for “Dicko,” he is a leader of the Burkinabe jihadist group Ansarul Islam affiliated to the JNIM. In this capacity, he “allegedly supervised the detention of an American national.”
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) accuses them of having actively contributed, financially supported, or provided material resources, technology, goods or services to acts of hostage-taking or wrongful detention of US nationals abroad.
The sanctions concern the confiscation of all their assets and interests in the United States or “in the possession or control of US persons.”
In addition, “all entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, 50 percent or more by one or more of the blocked persons are also blocked,” the US Treasury added.
OFAC had already sanctioned Bah Ag Moussa, a close associate of JNIM leader Iyad ag Ghali, in 2019. He was accused of carrying out terrorist attacks in Mali, including one that killed 21 Malian soldiers.
The State Department has designated JNIM as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) and Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT), since September 2018.
DS/ac/fss/as/APA
Washington slaps sanctions on Sahel jihadist kingpins
