Fifty terrorists linked to al Qaeda group in Mali were killed in a planned attack by the French government’s anti-jihadist force in the region last week.
French Defence Minister Florence Parly said the attack took place on Friday in an area near the borders of Burkina Faso and Niger, where government troops are struggling to rout an Islamic insurgency, after meeting members of Mali's transitional government.
“On October 30 in Mali, the Barkhane force conducted an operation that neutralised more than 50 jihadists and confiscated arms and material,” Parly said, referring to the French-led anti-jihadist Operation Barkhane. 30 motorcycles were destroyed in the attack.
Parly, had met Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou and her Nigerien counterpart Issoufou Katambe before heading to Bamako. She said the operation was launched after a drone detected a “very large” motorcycle caravan in the “three borders” area. The attack marked a significant blow to to the Ansarul Islam group which was linked to the Al Qaeda via the Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM) alliance led by Iyad Ag Ghaly.
Ghaly has emerged as a top jihadist leader in the Sahel since the death of the Qaeda commander Abdelmalek Droukdel, who was killed by French forces in Mali in June, an AFP report read.
The United Nations has some 13,000 troops deployed in Mali as part of its peacekeeping mission, known as MINUSMA, while France has 5,100 deployed in the Sahel region.
In 2013, former colonial power France had launched a military operation to drive back the Islamists, but thousands have been left dead as fighting has spread to central Mali, and to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.
In August, six French aid workers were shot dead in Niger. The Koure region, where the aid workers were killed has become a hideout for Sahel jihadist groups such as the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS)
