Ahmed Murad (Cairo, Bamako)
Warnings have been issued of the increasing activity of terrorist groups, especially Al-Qaeda, in the countries of the African Sahel region, especially after the armed attacks that took place in the Malian capital, Bamako, which resulted in hundreds of deaths and injuries.
Security sources in Bamako announced yesterday that 77 people were killed and 255 others were injured in armed attacks that took place last Tuesday, while an official document indicated that about 100 people were killed, mentioning the names of the victims.
Tuesday’s attacks came a day after the first anniversary of the creation of the Sahel Alliance, which includes Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, three countries facing the expansion of terrorist activities in the African Sahel region.
Since 2020, these countries have successively cancelled the historical alliance with France and shifted their political and military alliances towards other partners.
Before dawn on Tuesday, the terrorists attacked the gendarmerie school, stormed the nearby military airport, and temporarily took control of part of it, in an operation the capital, Bamako, had not witnessed the likes of since 2016.
Experts warned, in statements to Al-Ittihad, of the danger of terrorist organizations returning to escalate their activities in the African Sahel countries, and the aggravation of the security and living conditions of millions of people that this would cause.
African affairs expert Rami Zahdi said in a statement to Al-Ittihad that Al-Qaeda is noticeably active during this period in the African Sahel region, exploiting the conditions that the countries of the region are suffering from, which has encouraged the organization and other groups allied with it to intensify their terrorist attacks.
Zahdi said that Al-Qaeda is reappearing repeatedly in the African continent, especially in conflict zones, most notably the Sahel region, which suffers from chronic social, economic, political and security conditions that have made it one of the hotbeds of extremism in the world.
For her part, the Director of the African Center for Research and Strategic Studies in Cairo, Dr. Ghada Fouad, explained that the African Sahel region has been witnessing an intense presence of terrorist groups and extremist movements for several years, especially in the border triangle between the three Sahel countries, namely Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, where Al-Qaeda is one of the most prominent terrorist groups in the region.
Fouad told Al-Ittihad that the Sahel countries are waging a strong confrontation against terrorist organizations, and at the same time have differences with some Western countries.
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