" I congratulate and thank all those who have helped and led these operations in bold, which carry severe blows to these terrorist groups ". On Twitter, the minister for the armed forces Florence Parly has announced the death of the leader of Al-Qaeda in the islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the Algerian Abdelmalek Droukdal. The emir of AQIM, was killed by French forces in northern Mali, near the algerian border in an operation with the "partners" of France.

Abdelmalek Droukdal, a member of the steering committee of Al-Qaeda, commanded the whole of the groups qaïdistes in North Africa and the sahel strip, including the JNIM, one of the main terrorist groups active in the Sahel.

— Florence Parly (@florence_parly) June 5, 2020

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This historical leader of the jihad in the Maghreb, in command of several groups of jihadists in the sahel, was killed Thursday in the north-west of the city in mali's Tessalit. "Several of his close collaborators" have also been "neutralized," added Florence Parly. "Abdelmalek Droukdal, a member of the steering committee of Al-Qaeda, commanded the whole of the groups qaïdistes in North Africa and the sahel strip, including the JNIM, one of the main terrorist groups active in the Sahel ", according to the French minister.

An "important part of the SAES" also captured

The leader of AQIM, whose name is sometimes also spelled Droukdel, has received the allegiance of several groups of jihadists active in Sahel region, gathered from 2017 within the support Group to islam and to muslims (GSIM), led by the tuareg of mali Iyad Ag Ghaly. France also boasts Friday night the capture of an " important part of the SAES ", the group jihadist islamic State in the Great Sahara, a rival of the GSIM in the Sahel and designated enemy number one by Paris.

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" The operations against the islamic State, the Grand Sahara, the other large terrorist threat in the region, also continue. Last may 19, the French armed forces had captured Mohamed el Mrabat, a veteran of the jihad in the Sahel and an important part of the SAES, " announces Mrs. Parly in another tweet. The French force antijihadiste Barkhane, with more than 5 000 military personnel, multiplies these last months the attacks in the Sahel, to attempt to stop the spiral of violence that, combined with inter-communal conflict, were 4, 000 deaths in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso last year, five times more than in 2016, according to the UN.