Iyad ag Ghali

Five days before Macron's statement Jama'at Nusrat al Islam wal Muslimin led by veteran warlord Iyad ag Ghali claimed responsibility for attacks against both Barkhane and the Mission multidimensionnelle intégrée des Nations unies pour la stabilisation au Mali (Minusma) saying it had killed at least 20 soldiers...

Prime Minister Moctar Ouane has set out his plans to develop talks with some jihadist faction leaders following up on the initial overtures that President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta – deposed by army putschists in August – had already made towards Iyad ag Ghaly and Amadou Koufa of the Jama'at Nusrat al Islam wal Muslimin alliance (AC Vol 61 No 20 Colonels concede – but not much)...

None other than Mali's jihad supremo Iyad ag Ghali showed how welcome these payments were when he threw a grandiose dinner party in the middle of the desert for the 200 or so 'fighters' who had been released from Bamako's prisons in October in exchange for four European hostages and Mali's opposition politician Soumaïla Cissé...

The deal that saw Jama'a Nusrat ul Islam wa al Muslimin (JNIM) the Malian branch of Al Qaida led by Iyad ag Ghaly exchange four hostages for 204 presumed jihadists has thrown up more questions than answers...

Maïga cut off support for the commission that Dicko had set up to try to develop a dialogue with Mali's two most prominent homegrown jihadist chiefs Iyad ag Ghaly head of the Jama'a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) and Amadou Koufa who leads its central Malian subsidiary the Front de Libération du Macina (FLM – AC Vol 60 No 19 The talking cure)...

In the absence of a claim of responsibility from the jihadists speculation centred on the probability that they belonged to Mali's Al Qaida-affiliated Jamaat Nusrat ul Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) which is led by Iyad ag Ghali (AC Vol 59 No 5 New jihadist alliance strikes)...

Dicko is not aligned with the homegrown jihadist chiefs Iyad ag Ghaly and Amadou Koufa but he does favour talks with them – a strategy Keïta is now trying to pursue (AC Vol 61 No 4 Terrorists at the table)...

The jihadist leader Iyad ag Ghali is an old friend of Dicko's...

President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta says his envoy Dioncounda Traoré had his full authority to initiate talks with jihadist chiefs Iyad ag Ghaly and Amadou Koufa – after years of government insistence there would be no negotiation with terrorists (AC Vol 61 No 1 Advantage jihadists)...

Meanwhile the special envoy for central Mali former interim head of state Dioncounda Traoré says he has put out feelers to the jihadist leaders Amadou Koufa and Iyad ag Ghaly alarming his Western collaborators...