Last Updated on November 4, 2020, 1:18 AM AST by Anthony Morris
The French government said on Monday that the French forces killed over 50 jihadists aligned to Al-Qaeda in central Mali in airstrikes.
French Defence Minister Florence Parly said that the airstrikes took place on Friday in an area near the borders of Niger and Burkina Faso, where the government troops are struggling to rout an Islamic insurgency.
Parly said that On October 30 the Barkhane force conducted an operation in Mali which neutralised over 50 jihadists and confiscated material and arms.
She also said that they destroyed around 30 motorcycles during the operation.
Parly, who met the Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou and her Nigerien counterpart Issoufou Katambe earlier before heading to Bamako, said that the airstrike operation was launched after a drone detected a large motorcycle caravan in the three borders area.
The Defence Minister said that when the jihadists moved under trees to escape surveillance, two Mirage jets and a drone were sent in by the French forces to launch missiles, leading to the “neutralisation” of the insurgents.
Colonel Frederic Barbry, a Military spokesman, said that they captured four terrorists.
He added that they found a suicide vest and explosives and that the group was about to attack an army position in the three border region.
Barbry also said that another operation, targeting the Islamic State was also underway, in the Greater Sahara, with 3,000 soldiers.
He said that the results of the operation, which was launched around a month ago, would be announced in the coming days.
Parly said that the action marked a “significant blow” to the Ansarul Islam group linked to Al-Qaeda via the GSIM alliance which is led by Iyad Ag Ghaly.
Ghaly surfaced as a top jihadist leader in the Sahel after the death of the Qaeda commander Abdelmalek Droukdel, who was killed in June by French forces in Mali.
The UN has around 13,000 troops deployed in Mali as part of its peacekeeping mission, MINUSMA, and France has 5,100 troops deployed in the Sahel region.
Mali is struggling to contain a brutal jihadist insurgency which emerged in the north of the country for the first time in 2012, overtaking a rebellion by mostly ethnic Tuareg separatists.
Anthony Morris covers stories related to politics and regional developments. His in-depth reporting about governance and reforms makes him stand out in regional journalism, with a deep analysis of political trends and their impact on Caribbean communities.
