The hunt continues: the French anti-jihadist force Barkhane has arrested a "cadre" of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (EIGS) organization, yet another success in the now-claimed policy of targeting the leaders of jihadist groups in the area.

Dadi Ould Chouaïb, alias Abou Dardar, "one of the executives of the EIGS", is "also suspected of having mutilated three men last May 2 during the weekly market of Tin Hama", indicated the general staff French in a statement, Wednesday, June 16, specifying that the jihadist had surrendered without resistance and that he carried "an automatic weapon, a night vision telescope, a combat vest, a telephone and a radio".

The arrest took place on June 11 in the morning in the "three borders" area, on the borders of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, one of the main areas of action of the jihadist groups installed in the Sahel, in particular the 'EIGS.

He had been spotted there by a helicopter during a joint operation between Barkhane and the Nigerien armed forces.

>> To read: Recalibration of Barkhane in the Sahel: the risky bet of Emmanuel Macron

Abu Dardar is a former member of the Movement for Uniqueness and Jihad in West Africa (Mujao), some of whose executives created the EIGS.

Arrested for the first time in 2014, he was handed over to the Malian authorities.

But he had been one of some 200 jihadists extended in October 2020 in exchange for four hostages, including the French Sophie Pétronin, at the end of negotiations in which Paris had claimed not to have been associated.

On May 2, armed men gathered the crowd at the weekly market in Tin Hama, and presented three men described as thieves, whose right hand and left foot they had cut off, according to information gathered from local interlocutors. speaking on condition of anonymity.

These armed men were presumed to belong to EIGS, the UN Mission (Minusma) said.

An executive of the Aqmi group eliminated

According to a security source, since his release in October, "he was a cadi (Islamic judge) in the ansongo-menaka area. I would qualify him as a second-rank commander, important at the local level," she said, stressing moreover both his long absence from the field and his short return which puts his weight in the organization into perspective.

His arrest is nonetheless welcome for France, whose President Emmanuel Macron had promised in February, during a summit with the heads of state of the region, "an enhanced action" to "try to behead these organizations ", of which" the highest hierarchy continues to feed a jihadist agenda ".

Paris has therefore since adopted a strategy aimed primarily at chefs.

Barkhane has just called for the elimination of a cadre of the Al-Qaeda group in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), an opponent of the EIGS in the area.

Baye Ag Bakabo was responsible for the kidnapping and death of two French RFI journalists, Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon, murdered in Kidal on November 2, 2013.

>> To see: Fight against terrorism in the Sahel: what future for the French forces in Mali?

Operation Barkhane is now officially promised to end soon.

It will be replaced by a lighter international support and combat support system for the troops of the countries of the region, at the cost of a hoped-for rise in power from the Europeans and a major investment by the states concerned.

France no longer wishes to attempt to secure areas where States are unable to maintain a foothold, in order to concentrate on the targeted fight against the jihadists and the support of local forces.

A reorientation that comes as the 2022 presidential election draws closer in France, where this military commitment raises growing questions, especially with regard to the 50 soldiers killed in action since 2013.

But this strategy raises fears that certain areas of the Sahel, in particular northern Mali, will pass completely into the hands of jihadist groups, as the local states seem unable to restore their authority in these vast desert bands and extremely poor.

With AFP

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