New Delhi: France’s armed forces minister on Friday informed that the French army has killed an Al-Qaida leader during an operation in the Sahel region, Burkina Faso. Al-Qaida leader was responsible for the kidnapping and killing of two French journalists in 2013.
These words have come just a day after French President Emmanuel Macron ordered a drawdown of French forces from the Sahel.
Florence Parly – Minister of the Armed Forces of France said that “An operation was launched against an armed terrorist group, which was about to unleash mortar fire on a base held by a Chadian battalion of MINUSMA.”
Paris prosecutors as early as 2013 had named Baye ag Bakabo, a Touareg rebel and drug trafficker linked to al Qaeda’s north African wing, as the chief suspect after his pick-up truck was found abandoned in the desert near the bodies of the journalists.
France, the former colonial power, has hailed some success against Sahel militants in recent months. However, the situation is extremely fragile and Paris has grown frustrated with no apparent end in sight to its operations, political turmoil, especially in Mali, and some regional governments directly negotiating with militants Paris has been fighting.
