French troops in Mali have confirmed that they killed Ali Maychou, a senior figure in the al-Qaeda-linked Group to Support Islam and Muslims (JNIM). The slain terrorist leader is the second most wanted in the Sahel region only second to JNIM leader Iyad Ag Ghaly.
Ali is of Moroccan descent and he joined AQIM in 2012 and later co-founding JNIM with Iyad Ag Ghaly and masterminding its expansion in the Sahel. He has been credited with being responsible for the media presence that JNIM has had and is said to have been a very ruthless individual that was very instrumental in the recruitment process of terrorists in the Sahel region.
The majority of insurgent attacks in Africa’s Sahel region are attributed to JNIM, which formed in March 2017 from a merger of several smaller groups including the Sahara branch of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Ansar Dine, and Al-Mourabitoun. JNIM’s leadership has pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
