In a rare video appearance, a top jihadist leader in the Sahel has attacked the military regimes in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger and their Russian allies.
Al Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) leader Iyad Ag Ghaly urged local Muslims to support his fighters against the “treacherous governments” of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger and against the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, which operates in Mali.
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In a rare video appearance, a top jihadist leader in the Sahel has attacked the military regimes in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger and their Russian allies.
Al Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) leader Iyad Ag Ghaly urged local Muslims to support his fighters against the “treacherous governments” of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger and against the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, which operates in Mali.
In these countries plagued by jihadist insurgencies, militaries have seized power through coups and broken alliances with France and Western partners.
The video was authenticated on Wednesday by SITE, an American NGO that specializes in monitoring radical groups.
The recent military escalation in northern Mali and the recapture of Kindal by the Wagner-allied Malian army was achieved at the cost of “massacres” of civilians and forced displacement, Ag Ghaly said in the more than 22-minute video.
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In the video, the jihadist tried to portray himself as a defender of the oppressed, even though the jihadists are responsible for almost daily attacks on civilians and the military.
Addressing Malian Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla Maiga, Ag Ghaly said “the Islamic cause is completely incompatible with your plan.”
The need to rule according to Islamic law “cannot be compromised”, he added.
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He also denounced the situation in Burkina Faso, accusing the regime of Captain Ibrahim TraorΓ© of “persecuting, killing and displacing the population” and hailed the jihadists’ response, which he said had resulted in “huge casualties” in the opposition ranks.
Ag Ghaly has been seen by many commentators and Malian officials as an indispensable figure in efforts to end the country’s protracted crisis.
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