The United States Treasury (U.S.) announced on Tuesday a senior member of Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Mali has been added to its global terrorism list. U.S. Treasury accused him of engaging in destabilizing attacks across the West African country.
The terror operative identified as Bah Ag Moussa is a leader of Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin. He has been designated by the U.S. Treasury as a global terrorist and placed on a list of people whose assets in the United States can be blocked or freezed, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control added.
According to U.S. Treasury Undersecretary Sigal Mandelker, Treasury is targeting the leadership of JNIM, Al-Qaeda’s branch in Mali, for its heinous involvement in destabilizing role conducting terrorist attacks across the country.
He added that, as a leader within JNIM, Bah Ag Moussa is directly contributing to the violence and instability fueled by Al-Qaeda’s terrorism.
The Treasury also added Moussa to its sanctions list because he had acted on behalf of JNIM and its leader, Iyad ag Ghali. Both JNIM and Ghali were added to the sanctions list previously.
Moussa, a former Malian army colonel, led an operation in March against the Malian Armed Forces base in Dioura that killed at least 21 Malian soldiers.
JNIM claimed credit for an attack in January that killed 10 United Nations peacekeepers from Chad. The terror group also said that the attack was a response to the Chadian president’s decision to revive diplomatic ties with Israel.
