On Friday, July 2, 2021, the French Minister of Defense Florence Parly confirmed Allyhmoud ag Baye’s death, aka Ikarey. Two weeks ago, the RFI announced the death of this cadre of Islamic State in Greater Sahara during a joint operation between the French and Nigerian armies and the European workforce Takouba in June in the Menaka region. Five other jihadists were neutralized and two relatives of Abu Walid al-Sahraoui, the leader of the EIGS, were arrested.
The battle is fierce for the Islamic State in Greater Sahara. In a few days, several relatives of Abu Walid al-Sahraoui were eliminated. During a meeting with the Association of Defense Journalists, the French Minister of Defense Florence Parly confirmed the “neutralization” of six terrorists. Among them, Almahmoud ag Baye, alias Ikarey, which the minister presented as “the leader of a group of combatants in the Ménaka region, on the border with Niger”.
According to our information, Ikarey belonged to the headquarters of the Islamic State in Greater Sahara. He specifically planned the Tongo Tongo ambush in Niger, which claimed the lives of four American soldiers, in the Tillabéry region, in the western part of the country, in December 2019. Ikarey was among the most wanted terrorists in the Sahel by the US State Department. , who had put a price on his head, the modest sum of five million dollars.
Two other EIGS leaders were also captured: Sidi Ahmed Ould Mohammed alias Katab al-Mauritani, as well as Dadi Ould Chouaïb, alias Abou Dardar, whose arrest had already been announced by Barkhane.
Finally, Florence Parly confirmed the death of Abdel Hakim al-Sahraoui, number two in the EIGS “under still unknown circumstances”. Sources close to the fighters in Niger had confirmed to RFI that he had died of a long illness.
The topicality of the matches
It was a joint operation that made these results possible. It was mobilized for several weeks, the French soldiers from Operation Barkhane, those from the Nigerian army, as well as those from the European working group Takouba.
“The neutralization of Ikarey and other terrorists intervened extraordinarily during the fighting,” a local source close to the armed movements in the region told RFI. A French security source in the Sahel suggests that it was during a patrol that Barkhane’s soldiers discovered a tent hiding the jihadists.
This operation comes a few weeks after President Emmanuel Macron announced “Deep transformation of Barkhane”. According to Florence Parly, France plans to leave bases in northern Mali, Tessalit, Kidal and Timbuktu by the end of 2021, but will retain its holdings in Gao and Ménaka. France intends to maintain pressure on terrorist groups in the area at the three borders between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, and in particular to continue its pursuit of the leaders of jihadist groups.
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