Successfully Kills ISIS Leader Sahel, France Targets Al-Qaeda Wing Chiefs In North Africa

Illustrations of ISIS (Wikimedia Commons / aharan_kotogo)

JAKARTA - Successfully killing the leader of the ISIS affiliate in West Africa with a drone strike, the French military has vowed to continue hunting for radical leaders to restore stability in the Sahel.

Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi is the head of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), a radical group that broke away from other militants in Mali in 2015, when it pledged allegiance to ISIS.

Since then, ISGS insurgents have spread to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger, carrying out hundreds of deadly attacks on civilians and armed forces, rendering vast swathes of West Africa's arid Sahel region out of control.

"Sahrawi's death is a severe blow to the ISGS and its cohesion," French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly told reporters, citing Reuters September 16.

Sahrawi had been tracked down by French counter-terrorism forces in northern Mali, and then killed by a drone strike while riding a motorbike in mid-August, he said.

France estimates the group is responsible for the deaths of 2,000-3,000 people, most of them Muslim and still having hundreds of fighters, though Parly says its leadership is now less international and more of the local Fulani.

Sahrawi targeted US troops in the deadliest attack in 2017, President Macron's office said. In August 2020, he personally ordered the killing of six French charity workers and their Nigerian driver, France said.

Meanwhile, Paris has begun to reshape its 5,000-strong Barkhane mission to include more European partners and earlier this month began relocating from bases in northern Mali.

The country has also launched a diplomatic offensive to stop the Malian junta from agreeing to a deal to recruit Russian mercenaries, which Paris says is incompatible with its presence in Mali.

The attack on Sahrawi, which came just two months after the death of Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Nigeria's Boko Haram, followed another attack on senior ISGS ranks, which had been weakened by recent targeted operations, killing five of its seven top leaders.

However, the group remains dangerous and has carried out a series of deadly attacks on civilians, particularly in Niger, where the death toll has risen sharply this year.

"We have no information about successors at this stage, but it probably won't be easy to find a leader of the same weight as the person killed," Parly said.

Separately, Bernard Emie, head of France's external intelligence service, told reporters there would now be increased focus on neutralizing Iyad Ag Ghaly, head of Al-Qaeda's north African wing, whose group has carried out sporadic operations around Ivory Coast and the Senegalese border region.

"Sahrawi's death is likely to disrupt ISGS operations in the short term," said Alexandre Raymakers, senior Africa analyst at risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft.

"But it is not possible to permanently paralyze extremist groups," he concluded.