France has reported an "important success" in the fight against Islamist terrorist groups in the Sahel.
As the French Defense Minister Florence Parly explained on Thursday at a specially convened press conference in Paris, the head of the terrorist organization “Islamic State in the Sahara” (ISGS) was already in August “after 18 months of intensive manhunt” during a deployment of the so-called Barkhane operation was killed.
Michaela Wiegel
Political correspondent based in Paris.
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Terrorist chief Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi was responsible for most of the recent terrorist attacks in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.
"He decided everything," said Parly.
She called him "number one" in the terrorist organization.
The defense minister put the number of terrorist victims he was responsible for at more than 1,000 people, “most of them were Muslims”.
The terrorist chief is said to have been responsible, among other things, for the murder of six French development workers from the Acted organization in 2020.
France wants to cut troop presence in half
The United States had also put a bounty on him for a fatal attack on US troops in Niger in 2017. French President Emmanuel Macron announced that night that a decisive blow had been achieved against the terrorist organization. "This is another great achievement in our fight against terrorist groups in the Sahel," the president tweeted. French troops have killed several senior ISGS members since the start of the military operation in Mali in 2013.
In July, Macron announced the end of the French combat mission Barkhane for the beginning of 2022. The number of soldiers is to be halved by 2023. There are currently 5,100 French soldiers deployed in the Sahel. France wants to close its military bases in Kidal, Timbuktu and Tessalit in northern Mali by the end of the year.
The military engagement is to be continued by the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA).
Macron is committed to strengthening the mission, in which the Bundeswehr is also involved with up to 1,100 soldiers.
The Bundeswehr is also represented in Mali by up to 600 other soldiers as part of the EU training mission EUTM.
Since last year, on the initiative of France, there has also been a European reaction force called Takuba in the region.
France especially wants to continue the “war on terror” from Niamey, Niger’s capital.
There is the Takuba headquarters.
The Chadian capital N'Djamena and the cities of Gao and Menaka in Mali remain further bases.
No evidence of contract with Wagner mercenaries
Meanwhile, there is growing disagreement between the military junta in Mali and the French government. According to French information, the self-appointed head of state, Colonel Assimi Goita, is negotiating with the Russian mercenary troop Wagner to replace the French soldiers with Russian mercenaries. In the Central African Republic, the use of the Wagner mercenaries was accompanied by a massive anti-French campaign. France fears that a similar campaign could now begin in the former colonies of West Africa. Defense Minister Parly said on Thursday: "We have no evidence of a contract between the Wagner group and the Malian government." Should such a contract be concluded, the French military presence can no longer be justified.
The political situation in Mali is characterized by increasing instability.
Most of the Islamist-motivated violence has spread to neighboring countries in the Sahel zone in recent years.
According to calculations by the Senate, the foreign assignment has cost France ten billion euros so far.
The right-wing chairman of the Senate Defense Committee, Christian Cambon, recently said: "It is not France's job to stay in Mali forever."
The head of the regional Sahel program of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) based in Bamako, Thomas Schiller, commented on the killing of al-Sahrawi as follows: “It is a success, if you will.
But Barkhane has many tactical successes. ”However, it does not change the fundamental problems in the region such as the lack of state structures.