French military kills al-Qaeda's Islamic Maghreb chief in Mali

French military, supported by their African partners, killed last Wednesday in northern Mali the head of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Abdelmalek Droukdal, and several of his collaborators, announced Friday the French Minister of Defence, Florence Parly.

On her Twitter account, Parly pointed out that Droukdal was a member of the al-Qaeda executive committee and was in charge of all the components of this jihadist nebula in North Africa and the Sahel.

He noted that this includes the so-called Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), one of the "main" terrorist organizations in that region.

He also explained that on May 19 French troops had captured Mohamed el Mrabat, a veteran jihadist and one of the heads of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (EIGS), "the other major terrorist threat" in the area.

Parly welcomed these operations, thanked all those who had contributed to them and said that French forces and their G5 Sahel partners would continue to pursue these groups " without a break ".

He recalled that France and those G5 Sahel countries (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mauritania and Chad) had reaffirmed at their summit meeting on 13 January in the French city of Pau their determination to combat terrorist groups operating in the Sahel.

In their view, this latest operation against the leader of AQIM is "a great success" in the "essential fight for peace and stability in the region".