The Islamic State group calls on those who fought it to lay down their arms. In an audio message released several days ago, an Islamic State in the Sahel cadre offers “repentance” and submission. A propaganda message broadcast as the jihadist group asserts its domination over a large part of northeastern Mali.
Youssouf Ould Chouaib is a member of the Sahelian branch of the Islamic State group in Liptako-Gourma, an area of the three Mali-Niger-Burkina borders. Malian Arab by his father and Tamashek (Tuareg) by his mother, he is among the initiators of the vast offensive carried out since March 2022 by the Islamic State in the north-east of Mali.
Several local security sources joined by RFI formally recognize his voice on this three-minute propaganda audio, also authenticated by Menastream, an organization specializing in security and jihadism issues in the Sahel and North Africa. Which specifies that the audio was not released through the official channels of the Islamic State group – which is usual for this type of local and not “central” initiatives – and that it began to circulate during the month of Ramadan, after the arrival of the Islamic State in Tidermene on April 10. An incursion which established the group’s domination in the Ménaka region.
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Message addressed to Jnim and local armed groups
In this propaganda recording punctuated with Islamic references, and whose content RFI has chosen to explain, which is of informative interest, without relaying it textually, Youssouf Ould Chouaib offers the “ repentance » rather than death to « all those who [nous] have fought “.
Without being mentioned by name, the message is therefore addressed to the rival jihadists of the Jnim (Support Group for Islam and Muslims), linked to al-Qaeda, as well as to the local armed groups signatories of the agreement. of peace of 2015, in particular the MSA and the Gatia, in the front line in this zone to defend the civilians, or the CMA, which brings together the former separatist rebels of Kidal.
Youssouf Ould Chouaib essentially asks them to abandon their weapons and their vehicles, or to join the ranks of the Islamic State. To a lesser extent, the message may also concern the soldiers of the national armies engaged against the Islamic State group in Mali, Niger and Burkina.
“Break down the forces present”
Youssouf Ould Chouaib’s “offer” is in any case very different from that formulated by Iyad Ag Ghaly. The leader of Jnim had met at the end of 2022-beginning of 2023 several leaders of armed groups in the North who had signed the peace agreement, to offer them a kind of temporary non-aggression pact, in order to fight, each on his own, the same enemy: the Islamic State in the Sahel, which, at this stage, has nevertheless taken over.
” This shows the willingness of the Islamic State in the Sahel to occupy the region ideologically and militarily », Analyzes a Malian security source, who is closely monitoring the situation. ” In itself, this is not new, but it is a way of declaring oneself master of the field and of trying to break the opposing forces. »
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Several sources note that the message broadcast by Youssouf Ould Chouaib uses elements of the language of the Islamic State group dating back to the beginning of the “caliphate” established in Syria and Iraq (period 2013-2014), certain formulations being directly linked to the Levantine context of the time, not very appropriate for the current Sahelian context.
Finally, this audio does not give any details on the conditions that are or will be imposed on civilians who did not wish to flee, and who remain to live in a territory now controlled by the jihadists of the Islamic State group.
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