Photo released by the French army on July 23, 2020 showing Brigadier Tojohasina Razafintsalama, killed in Mali by a suicide vehicle. – Handout / FRENCH ARMY / AFP
The Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), the main jihadist alliance in the Sahel linked to Al-Qaida, claimed responsibility for the suicide attack that claimed the life of a French soldier in northern Mali, the July 23.
The GSIM explained that it had targeted a French military camp located near the town of Gossi, in a press release authenticated by the American group Site, which specializes in monitoring jihadist organizations. Islamist fighters detonated two vehicles near the access gates to the base, to allow a third to enter and detonate, according to the statement.
Multiplication of offensives in the region
The GSIM is headed by Iyad Ag Ghaly, a member of the Tuareg tribe of Ifoghas, originally from Kidal, in northern Mali, essential for several decades on the Sahelian chessboard, first at the head of a Tuareg rebellion in the 1990s, then as leader of armed Islamist groups. He is today the representative in the Sahel of the supreme leader of Al-Qaida, Ayman Zawahiri.
The French army announced last week the death of a paratrooper, which occurred when “his armored vehicle jumped in contact with a suicide vehicle loaded with explosives”, during a reconnaissance mission.
The French anti-jihadist operation in the Sahel, Barkhane, has around 5,100 soldiers. In recent months, the French army and those of the G5 Sahel countries have stepped up offensives in the region, in particular in the area known as the “three borders” between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. Paris claimed the “neutralization” of several dozen jihadists in total, including in June the emir of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqmi), the Algerian Abdelmalek Droukdal, a figure of jihadism in the region for 20 years.