It has been only seven years, on November 2, that our colleagues from RFI Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon were murdered in Kidal while reporting in this city in northern Mali. Kidnapped and then murdered in the wake, an act claimed by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Its alleged sponsor, Seidane Ag Hitta, is well known to Western and regional intelligence services, members of armed groups in northern Mali and all military analysts and researchers specializing in the area. By cross-checking the information from sources from all these backgrounds, RFI has reconstructed its history.
In the jihadist milieu, Seidane Ag Hitta calls himself Abou Abdel Hamid Al Kidali or Al Qaïrawani. In the few pictures we know of him, he wears a trellis, a sand-colored scarf and a thin mustache.
A former chief sergeant of the Malian National Guard, he left in 2006 to join a Tuareg uprising. At that time, he was already fighting under orders from Iyad Ag Ghali. Like him, he will pass from the ranks of independence to those of jihadist terrorists …
In the early 2010s, he became an al-Qaeda fighter in the Islamic Maghreb. Its focus area: the Kidal region, from the city of Kidal itself to Tessalit and up to the border with Algeria, next to Boughessa, in Mali and Tinzawatène, in Algeria.
He was for a time a member of Katiba Al-Ansar, led by Abdekrim al-Targui and involved in the kidnapping of Western hostages, including Michel Germaneau, Philippe Verdon or Serge Lazarevic.
Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon
Seidane Ag Hitta then created his own katiba, Youssef Bin Tachfin, in December 2012, while maintaining close ties with his former boss. The assassination of Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon was thus claimed by Al Targui, but Seidane Ag Hitta would actually be the sponsor. It was members of his katiba who made up the command who kidnapped and then murdered them.
Last year, he confirmed in an audio message the death of one of the leaders of AQIM killed by the French army and specifically threatened a Malian official who was accused of collaborating with the French.
Near Iyad Ag Ghali
Seidane Ag Hitta also remained close to Iyad Ag Ghali, who became emir of Ansar Dine and then of GSIM, the Islamic and Muslim support group linked to al-Qaeda.
Last month, he, Seidane Ag Hitta, led the negotiations on the jihadist’s side, resulting in the release of four hostages, including Malian opposition leader Soumaïla Cissé and French humanitarian Sophie Pétronin in return for more than 200 AQIM warriors until then detained in Malian prisons.
According to the sources, Seidane Ag Hitta is today number 2 on GSIM or perhaps its military commander for the Kidal region or a direct deputy for Iyad Ag Ghaly.
Regardless of his exact position in the jihadist organizational chart, it is now clear that Seidane Ag Hitta has “risen in rank”, in the words of a military analyst, and that he is today a leading executive. al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
We have the impression that we are witnessing a rehabilitation of this criminal who is not only involved in the case of the abduction of Ghislaine and Claude and their murders, but also in other cases: the kidnappings of Western hostages these last few years. So this gentleman, as we learn, number 2 on Iyad Ag Ghaly … It is not possible to imagine that he could be a valid negotiator and that he prevents justice from passing.
Pierre-Yves Schneider, spokesman for the Association of Friends of Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon
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