The French military killed Abdelmalek Droukdel, a senior Al Qaeda terrorist in an operation in northern Mali Wednesday, according to France's Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly.
"On June 3, the French armed forces, with the support of their partners, neutralized the emir Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI), Droukdel and several of his close collaborators, during an operation in northern Mali," Parly wrote on Twitter.
Droukdel was among the most experienced militants in North Africa and was one of those who participated in the control of extremist armed militias over northern Mali before being repelled by a French military intervention in 2013 and scattered in the Sahel.
AQIM is one of the oldest al Qaeda franchises and has a long history of operation in North Africa. Droukdel led the terror group for more than 15 years.
Droukdel is believed to have been hiding in the mountains of northern Algeria. The organization operates in northern Mali, Niger, Mauritania and Algeria.
Barley added that the French forces, composed of about 5,200 personnel in the region, also arrested on May 19 Muhammad Al-Murabit, a fighter she described as a veteran in the region and a member of ISIS in the Sahara desert.
"Our forces, in cooperation with our local partners ... will continue to track these (people) relentlessly," she said.
Mean while, CNN reported that the US military assisted the French operation by providing intelligence that helped locate the target.
On another hand, accusations increased against the Malian, Burkina and Nigerian forces involved in confronting extremists in the Sahel region of Africa, in terms of abuses against the local population, an issue that the Security Council has included in its discussion schedule.
The French News Agency said that in the beginning of April, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) condemned the "increasing" violations attributed to these national armies.
The United Nations counted 101 cases of extrajudicial executions by the Malian army between January and March, as well as about 30 other cases attributed to Nigerian forces deployed in Malian territory.
These accusations come at a crucial moment for the Sahel region. The United Nations faces skepticism by some members of the Security Council about the size of its mission in Mali (13,000 personnel in mid-June).
France has also reconsidered its engagement in the Sahel after the killing of 13 of its soldiers in November.
France gathered its allies in the Sahel region at a summit in the French city of Bou (south), where it "pressed (them) to reach concrete results."
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