The new leader of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) is a well-known veteran among the armed groups wreaking havoc in North Africa but experts say it is unclear what path he will chart to assert his authority. Al-Annabi was already head of AQIM’s Council of Dignitaries and “was also one of its media chiefs”, said Laurence Bindner, co-founder of the JOS Project that analyses armed group’s propaganda online. “He’s the one who pledged allegiance in the group’s name to Ayman al-Zawahiri, the main al-Qaeda chief, in 2011. That, in turn, could complicate AQIM’s relationships with Iyad Ag Ghaly, the Malian Tuareg who leads the Group to Support Islam and Muslims, a nominal ally of the armed group. That means infighting among the armed groups is unlikely to abate anytime soon.

Source: The North Africa Journal November 24, 2020 09:37 UTC