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Brief: ISGS on Verge of Victory in Menaka, Mali – Jamestown – The Jamestown Foundation
Militants in Menaka via Militant Wire
The town of Menaka, Mali has been a battleground for jihadists since the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJWA) captured the town in 2012. At that time, MUJWA was an offshoot from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) led by Malian Arabs and Sahrawi Arabs, including Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi and Abdelhakim al-Sahrawi. MUJWA eventually began to dissolve when al-Qaeda loyalist Mokhtar Belmokhtar and Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi affirmed their loyalty to al-Qaeda through founding a new group, al-Murabitun, in 2013. This group lasted two years until al-Sahrawi pledged his loyalty to Islamic State (IS); Belmokhtar’s fighters remained with al-Qaeda and eventually became a component of the then-new al-Qaeda affiliate in the Sahel, Group for Supporters of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) (sahelmemo.com, December 7, 2015).
Just over a decade later, Menaka has again become a jihadist flashpoint, but this time because of the ongoing fighting between JNIM and Islamic State in Sahel Province, which is better known as Islamic State in Greater Sahara (ISGS). ISGS videos in late 2022 and 2023 have shown ISGS fighters carrying the IS-style “black flag” and fighting with JNIM around Menaka. ISGS has been progressively pushing JNIM out of the town since they began engaging them in October 2022 (imangahdien.com, October 29, 2022). In addition, by employing highly mobile groups of fighters (often using teams of motorcyclists, who receive rear support from militants in off-road vehicles), ISGS has been able to catch government-backed militias and the Malian and Burkinabe armies off-guard and overpower them (twitter.com/IbnSiqilli, March 24).
Despite the death of its two most prominent leaders, Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi and Albdelhakim al-Sahrawi, ISGS in recent years is still exhibiting a high level of strategic foresight (see Militant Leadership Monitor, December 3, 2021). The way ISGS has surrounded Menaka, for example, was by first capturing the town north of it, Tidermène, and then isolating Menaka itself, such that neither JNIM nor the Malian army would be able to easily send reinforcements into Menaka (tv5monde.com, April 13). In addition, as early as 2022, ISGS had undercover fighters stationed in Menaka, who were reportedly conducting assassinations there to soften up the operational environment for an eventual takeover of the town (Twitter.com/@sonnimaga, April 13).
ISGS has one less enemy to worry about, now that France—which had called the jihadist group the top regional security threat in January 2020—has withdrawn its forces from Mali, following a breakdown in relations after that country’s government was taken over by the military in a coup (aljazeera.com, January 13, 2020). Since 2020, ISGS appeared to have been significantly weakened, in part due to the combined pressure of French, JNIM, and Malian forces. This could have opened the possibility, however remote, that JNIM would have become the predominant jihadist group in Mali and that JNIM’s leader, Iyad ag Ghaly, a former Malian diplomat, would have negotiated some form of truce (france24.com, December 6, 2012).
ISGS’s ideology, however, does not permit such truces with those they consider “infidels,” to include JNIM and the Malian government. As a result of ISGS’s resurgence, militancy in Mali will only become more severe. Imminently, however, it is Menaka that is in danger of falling into the hands of ISGS. This will serve as a major morale boost not only for ISGS, but also IS provinces in Africa and around the world more generally. ISGS’s potential conquest of Menaka will also aggravate the humanitarian situation in the area, such that aid organizations would fear providing services amid the risk of ISGS hostage-takings and ambushes (studiotamani.org, April 11).
The town of Menaka, Mali has been a battleground for jihadists since the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJWA) captured the town in 2012. At that time, MUJWA was an offshoot from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) led by Malian Arabs and Sahrawi Arabs, including Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi and Abdelhakim al-Sahrawi. MUJWA eventually began to dissolve when al-Qaeda loyalist Mokhtar Belmokhtar and Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi affirmed their loyalty to al-Qaeda through founding a new group, al-Murabitun, in 2013. This group lasted two years until al-Sahrawi pledged his loyalty to Islamic State (IS); Belmokhtar’s fighters remained with al-Qaeda and eventually became a component of the then-new al-Qaeda affiliate in the Sahel, Group for Supporters of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) (sahelmemo.com, December 7, 2015).
Just over a decade later, Menaka has again become a jihadist flashpoint, but this time because of the ongoing fighting between JNIM and Islamic State in Sahel Province, which is better known as Islamic State in Greater Sahara (ISGS). ISGS videos in late 2022 and 2023 have shown ISGS fighters carrying the IS-style “black flag” and fighting with JNIM around Menaka. ISGS has been progressively pushing JNIM out of the town since they began engaging them in October 2022 (imangahdien.com, October 29, 2022). In addition, by employing highly mobile groups of fighters (often using teams of motorcyclists, who receive rear support from militants in off-road vehicles), ISGS has been able to catch government-backed militias and the Malian and Burkinabe armies off-guard and overpower them (twitter.com/IbnSiqilli, March 24).
Despite the death of its two most prominent leaders, Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi and Albdelhakim al-Sahrawi, ISGS in recent years is still exhibiting a high level of strategic foresight (see Militant Leadership Monitor, December 3, 2021). The way ISGS has surrounded Menaka, for example, was by first capturing the town north of it, Tidermène, and then isolating Menaka itself, such that neither JNIM nor the Malian army would be able to easily send reinforcements into Menaka (tv5monde.com, April 13). In addition, as early as 2022, ISGS had undercover fighters stationed in Menaka, who were reportedly conducting assassinations there to soften up the operational environment for an eventual takeover of the town (Twitter.com/@sonnimaga, April 13).
ISGS has one less enemy to worry about, now that France—which had called the jihadist group the top regional security threat in January 2020—has withdrawn its forces from Mali, following a breakdown in relations after that country’s government was taken over by the military in a coup (aljazeera.com, January 13, 2020). Since 2020, ISGS appeared to have been significantly weakened, in part due to the combined pressure of French, JNIM, and Malian forces. This could have opened the possibility, however remote, that JNIM would have become the predominant jihadist group in Mali and that JNIM’s leader, Iyad ag Ghaly, a former Malian diplomat, would have negotiated some form of truce (france24.com, December 6, 2012).
ISGS’s ideology, however, does not permit such truces with those they consider “infidels,” to include JNIM and the Malian government. As a result of ISGS’s resurgence, militancy in Mali will only become more severe. Imminently, however, it is Menaka that is in danger of falling into the hands of ISGS. This will serve as a major morale boost not only for ISGS, but also IS provinces in Africa and around the world more generally. ISGS’s potential conquest of Menaka will also aggravate the humanitarian situation in the area, such that aid organizations would fear providing services amid the risk of ISGS hostage-takings and ambushes (studiotamani.org, April 11).
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Niger junta accuses UN chief of ‘obstructing’ their participation in General Assembly – FRANCE 24 English
Niger’s coup leaders accused the head of the United Nations on Friday of obstructing their participation in the body’s General Assembly, saying it was “likely to undermine any effort to end the crisis in our country”.
Issued on: 23/09/2023 – 08:43
2 min
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Rebel elite soldiers overthrew president Mohamed Bazoum on July 26 and have since detained him at home with his family.Negotiations to restore civilian rule have yet to bear fruit, with the junta demanding a three-year transition and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) calling for the immediate return of the democratically elected Bazoum.The coup has also been strongly criticised by Western governments and global bodies such as the UN, which is holding its General Assembly of world leaders in New York this week.In a news release read on public television, the military said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “went astray in the exercise of his mission by obstructing Niger’s full participation in the 78th session of the UN General Assembly”.It criticised “the perfidious actions” of the UN leader, adding that they were “likely to undermine any effort to end the crisis in our country”.Bakary Yaou Sangare, who before the coup was Niger’s ambassador to the UN and is now its foreign minister, was the new leaders’ chosen representative for the gathering.But, according to a diplomatic source, there was also an application by the overthrown government to represent Niamey.”In case of competing credentials from a Member State the secretary-general defers the matter to the Credentials Committee of the General Assembly who will deliberate on the matter,” Guterres’ spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.”The secretary-general does not decide.”Because the committee will not meet until later, no representative from Niger was added to the speakers’ list.Niger “forcefully rejects and denounces this clear interference by Mr Guterres in the internal affairs of a sovereign state”, the junta said.Worries over Sahel One of the world’s poorest nations, Niger is the fourth country in West Africa to suffer a coup since 2020, following Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali.Bazoum’s removal heightened international worries over the Sahel region, which faces growing jihadist insurgencies linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.Regional sanctions since the coup mean food and medicines are scarce in landlocked Niger, prices are skyrocketing and there are blackouts after Nigeria cut electricity supplies.Senegal’s President Macky Sall said on Thursday a diplomatic solution in Niger was “still possible”.”I hope that reason will ultimately prevail… that it is still possible to move forward reasonably to a solution,” Sall said in an interview with France’s RFI and France 24 media outlets.He urged Niger’s coup leaders “to not push (us) to the final decision which would be a military intervention”.The military leaders of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger signed a mutual defence pact this month, saying they aimed to “establish an architecture of collective defence and mutual assistance for the benefit of our populations”.(AFP)
Niger’s coup leaders accused the head of the United Nations on Friday of obstructing their participation in the body’s General Assembly, saying it was “likely to undermine any effort to end the crisis in our country”.
Issued on: 23/09/2023 – 08:43
2 min
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Rebel elite soldiers overthrew president Mohamed Bazoum on July 26 and have since detained him at home with his family.
Negotiations to restore civilian rule have yet to bear fruit, with the junta demanding a three-year transition and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) calling for the immediate return of the democratically elected Bazoum.
The coup has also been strongly criticised by Western governments and global bodies such as the UN, which is holding its General Assembly of world leaders in New York this week.
In a news release read on public television, the military said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “went astray in the exercise of his mission by obstructing Niger‘s full participation in the 78th session of the UN General Assembly”.
It criticised “the perfidious actions” of the UN leader, adding that they were “likely to undermine any effort to end the crisis in our country”.
Bakary Yaou Sangare, who before the coup was Niger’s ambassador to the UN and is now its foreign minister, was the new leaders’ chosen representative for the gathering.
But, according to a diplomatic source, there was also an application by the overthrown government to represent Niamey.
“In case of competing credentials from a Member State the secretary-general defers the matter to the Credentials Committee of the General Assembly who will deliberate on the matter,” Guterres’ spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
“The secretary-general does not decide.”
Because the committee will not meet until later, no representative from Niger was added to the speakers’ list.
Niger “forcefully rejects and denounces this clear interference by Mr Guterres in the internal affairs of a sovereign state”, the junta said.
Worries over Sahel
One of the world’s poorest nations, Niger is the fourth country in West Africa to suffer a coup since 2020, following Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali.
Bazoum’s removal heightened international worries over the Sahel region, which faces growing jihadist insurgencies linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.
Regional sanctions since the coup mean food and medicines are scarce in landlocked Niger, prices are skyrocketing and there are blackouts after Nigeria cut electricity supplies.
Senegal‘s President Macky Sall said on Thursday a diplomatic solution in Niger was “still possible”.
“I hope that reason will ultimately prevail… that it is still possible to move forward reasonably to a solution,” Sall said in an interview with France’s RFI and France 24 media outlets.
He urged Niger’s coup leaders “to not push (us) to the final decision which would be a military intervention”.
The military leaders of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger signed a mutual defence pact this month, saying they aimed to “establish an architecture of collective defence and mutual assistance for the benefit of our populations”.
(AFP)
Southern Africa34 mins ago
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Niger junta accuses UN chief of ‘obstructing’ their participation in General Assembly – FRANCE 24 English
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