Islamists in Mali Kill Many in Bamako (Pressure on Military Elites)
Sawako Utsumi and Sawako Uchida
Modern Tokyo Times
The Al-Qaeda affiliate JNIM (Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin) killed over 70 people in the capital city of Bamako. This happened several days ago.
Accordingly, the ruling military elites will feel internal pressure from ordinary people – and within the mechanisms of the ruling elites.
AFP reports, “An attack in the Malian capital, Bamako, targeting a military police training camp and airport left more than 70 people dead and 200 wounded, security sources said Thursday, one of the highest tolls suffered in recent years.”
The security lapse – and brazen attack by JNIM – highlights that Islamists can launch major terrorist attacks in the capital.
Other sources claim the death toll is higher than 70 people.
Lee Jay Walker (Modern Tokyo Times analyst) says, “Sunni Islamic terrorist groups utilize Libya (North Africa) and Nigeria (West Africa) to spread regional mayhem throughout the Sahel and Lake Chad region. This concerns criminal activity, terrorist networks, weapons, spreading Islamist Takfiri ideology, and so forth.”
The nations of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger in the Sahel region seek to counter border weaknesses – and other essential areas – in their collective fight against Islamic terrorism.
The BBC reports, “The three countries have all severed their ties with France, the former colonial power, which for years had a strong military presence across the Sahel.”
France 24 reports, “Mali, along with its neighbors Burkina Faso and Niger, has for more than a decade battled an insurgency fought by armed groups, including some allied with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. Following military coups in all three nations in recent years, the ruling juntas have expelled French forces and turned to Russian mercenary units for security assistance instead.”
Office of the Director of National Intelligence says (2022), “Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) is a terrorist group based in Mali and active across much of West Africa, including parts of Burkina Faso and Niger. It formed in March 2017, when four Mali-based extremist groups—Ansar al-Din, al-Murabitun, the Macina Liberation Front (MLF), and the Sahara Emirate subgroup of al-Qa‘ida in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)—announced that they had merged, formalizing cooperation among them. The leader of JNIM, Iyad ag Ghali, pledged the group’s allegiance to the amir of AQIM, to the amir of al-Qa‘ida, and to the leader of the Taliban.”
The terrorist attack in Bamako is a psychological blow to the ruling elites in Mali.
https://www.dni.gov/nctc/ftos/jnim_fto.html
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