Malian forces killed Abu Huzeifa, alias Hugo, one of the main leaders of the jihadist group of the Islamic State of the Sahel Province, as confirmed by the General Staff of the Malian Army. The terrorist was wanted for numerous crimes, including the 2017 Tongo Tongo attack in neighboring Niger, in which four Nigerien soldiers and four American soldiers were killed, the worst attack against the US Army in Africa since the Somalia war in 1993. For this reason, the United States had offered a reward of 4.7 million euros for his capture.
The operation took place in the Liptako area, belonging to the Gao region, in northern Mali, about 40 kilometers from the town of Indelimane. This was announced on Sunday by Moussa Ag Acharatoumane, leader of the Movement for the Salvation of Azawad (MSA), a Tuareg faction that collaborates with the Malian Army, through the X network, formerly Twitter. “My sincere congratulations to the Malian Armed Forces for this beautiful victory against obscurantism,” he said. The Malian military junta assured this Monday that they had the support of soldiers from Burkina Faso and Niger.
Abu Huzeifa, of Moroccan nationality, was for years one of the most faithful lieutenants of Abu Walid al Sahrawi, founder of the Sahelian branch of the Islamic State assassinated by France in 2021, and, after his death, he had assumed an important role as one of the main leaders of this jihadist group. On October 4, 2017, he was one of the perpetrators of the Tongo Tongo ambush, when dozens of Islamic State jihadists attacked a joint patrol of about 30 Nigerien soldiers and 11 members of the US special forces in Niger.
The combat took place in a wooded area of acacias and eucalyptus trees and was of special intensity, as the Americans needed French air support to push back the terrorists. The final balance was around twenty jihadists dead, as well as four Nigerien soldiers and an interpreter and four American soldiers. After the investigation, Washington identified the alleged leaders of the attack and put a price on their heads. Among them was Abu Walid al Sahrawi himself, murdered by French forces in 2021, and Abu Huzeifa, eliminated this Sunday by the Malian Armed Forces.
Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, the three Sahel states governed by military junta after their respective coups d’état between 2020 and 2023, have recently expelled French forces from their territory and are collaborating with each other in the fight against jihadism through the Association of Sahel States (AES). The murder of Huzeifa has been presented to public opinion as a success of this new defense and security strategy. Mali also has the support on the ground of Russian mercenaries and instructors, who have also arrived, although in smaller numbers, in Ouagadougou and Niamey, capitals of Burkina Faso and Niger.
These days, the Pentagon and the Nigerien military junta are negotiating the model and schedule for the withdrawal of a thousand US soldiers present in Niger after the authorities of this country revoked the military agreement that united both countries.
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The three countries are facing a jihadist insurgency that began in Mali in 2012 and then spread to Niger and Burkina Faso, currently carried out by the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (JNIM, for its acronym in Arabic), linked to Al Qaeda, and by the Sahelian branch of the Islamic State, as well as other local jihadist groups. Terrorist violence has caused tens of thousands of deaths, the forced displacement of some three million people and has destabilized the entire region.