Weak states, porous borders and trafficking activities turned the Sahel into a safe heaven for terrorist groups. Barkhane, France’s counter-terrorism force in Africa, has been deployed to fight terrorists in Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mauritania. The attack however shows an improvement in terrorist tactics particularly due to the connivance between the different terrorist groups in the Sahel, he explained. The four terrorist groups were brought together under the command of Iyad Ag Ghali, the leader of Ansar Eddine terrorist group based in Mali. The merging groups are: Ansar Eddine, Al Mourabitoune- led by Algerian notorious terrorist Moukhtar BelMokhtar-, the Macina brigade, and AlQaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) led by another Algerian Abdelmalek Droudkel.

Source: The North Africa Journal April 21, 2018 16:41 UTC