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| Africa North | |
| UN blacklists MUJAO | |
| 2012-12-11 | |
[Magharebia] The UN Security Council last Wednesday (December 5th) sanctioned al-Qaeda splinter group Movement for Tawhid and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO). Under the resolution, "UN member states have to freeze the assets of groups and individuals on this black list, impose a ban on arms sales and a travel ban on all of its members," according to AFP.
"The MUJAO's leaders are known to be narcos, involved in the drug trade in the Sahel," the UN statement added. Following the passage of the UN resolution, MUJAO leaders Hamada Ould Mohamed Kheirou of Mauritania and Ahmed al-Talmasi of Algeria were put on international lists of known terrorists. A source close to Kheirou's family spoke to Magharebia on December 9th. "He belongs to the Tagounanet tribe in Lebeiratt, Trazra province, in southeast Mauritania. He joined al-Qaeda in 2003 when he left to fight against international forces in Iraq. He climbed the ladder in al-Qaeda until he became the head of the Sharia committee, and was later appointed as head of the judiciary council in Gao after MUJAO controlled the city," the source said under condition of anonymity. According to analyst al-Mokhtar al-Salem, "the area of Lebeiratt -- from where Ould Mohamed Kheirou hails - is also the home of the great Mauritanian scholar Lemjidry Ould Hob Allah, who brought Wahhabism to the East in the 19th century". | |
| Posted by:Fred |