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Africa Subsaharan
Islamic State, al-Qaeda Support Fuels Attacks in West Africa
2018-02-06
[BLOOMBERG] Islamist Death Eater groups in West Africa’s Sahel region
... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas...
are using increased support from al-Qaeda and Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
and enhanced cooperation among themselves to carry out more sophisticated and deadly attacks, according to the chief of United Nations
...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks...
mission in Mali.

"When we examine the explosives, the types of mines, shells and weapons they use, our experts tell us that a fairly advanced level of expertise is required that they didn’t have before," the UN special representative in Mali, Mahamat Saleh Annadif, said Friday in an interview in the capital, Bamako.

The Death Eater groups are operating across a semi-arid region stretching along the southern end of the Sahara from Mali to Nigeria. La Belle France has almost 4,000 soldiers in the region, and the U.S. has troops in Niger and is building a drone and airbase in the northern city of Agadez. The UN has more than 13,000 members in its Mali mission, which suffered the greatest loss of life of any of its peacekeeping operations last year.

Despite the increased military involvement by foreign powers and West African armies, the violence shows no sign of abating. The Death Eater’s outside support is probably coming through Libya, Annadif said. They also have acquired funds from kidnappings and trafficking of drugs and migrants colonists seeking to reach Europe.

"What is happening in Libya, what is happening in the Middle East, Syria and Iraq, has an influence," he said. "There is a relationship between what is happening here and what is happening there, through Libya."

A group known as the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara
The suckulent fruit of the union of splinter factions from Mokhtar Bekmokhtar'sal-Mourabitunes and MUJAO. Once the dust had settled and the smell of gunsmoke had dissipated, they became the Islamic State in Mali, then adopted their present clever name. They are headed by Adnan Abu Walid Saharaoui. It operates along the borders of Burkina Faso
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other...
, Niger, and Mali....

grabbed credit for an attack in October on a joint patrol of U.S and Nigerien forces in which four U.S. soldiers were killed. It mostly operates near the borders of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, Annadif said.

The Group for the Support of Islam and Moslems, an affiliate of al-Qaeda formed last year by four local groups and known by the acronym JNIM, operates in northern and central Mali including in the towns of Kidal, Timbuktu and Mopti, Annadif said. The merger has "given an new impetus" to these groups and also explains the rising number of attacks, he said.

Posted by:Fred

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