On August 15, 2024, the Al-Zallaqa Media Foundation, the media arm of Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in the Sahel, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (GSIM), published a 16-minute video of an audio speech in Arabic with French subtitles by GSIM field commander, ‘Uthman Al-Ansari. Titled: “So Fight in the Cause of Allah” [Quran 4:84], the speech is delivered in Arabic, with French subtitles. This report summarizes the speech.
After Claims Of Destroying Western Dependency In The Region, The Governments “Fell In The Quagmire Of New Alliances And Allegiances”
After prefatory religious remarks, Al-Ansari begins by condemning the military-led governments in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, as well as their Russian and Turkish allies, saying that their despicable systematic acts of killing and displacement have become an unmistakable reality in the region.
He asserted that the governments in the Sahel, which took power after military coups, are striving to refine their reputation by pushing innumerable fake slogans about unity and statements about ridding the region of dependency on the West, “only to fall again in the quagmire of new alliances and allegiances to Russia and other allies.”,
By doing so, these governments surpassed all religious and humanitarian boundaries by not only denying people the right to live under the rule of shari’a, but also by depriving them of the most basic rights – to be safe and able to defend their wealth and honor.
Not Even Allies Spared In Local Armies’ Campaigns
Al-Ansari continued: “The massacres committed by these governments, enabled by Russian mercenaries, have surpassed all imaginable outcomes,” in a campaign, he adds, “aimed at implementing an agenda of genocide and displacement based on despicable ethnic segregation.”
Further, he stressed that the local armies’ campaigns did not even spare supporters and allies. He points to the recent incident in Mali’s Kidal, where the government forces killed members of the Imghad Tuareg Self-Defense Group and Allies (GATIA), a pro-government Tuareg and Arab Militia in northern Mali.
Corrupt Media Reporting Disregards Burkinabe Militia Massacres, Turkish Drone Attacks In Niger
Discrediting the Sahelian governments’ claims of promoting peace in the region, Al-Ansari asked: “What peace are they singing the praises of and which domestic concord and security they are talking about? Is this the peace the Malian army is currently promoting when it left behind mass graves in the suburbs of Abeibara?”
Al-Ansari further slams the governments in the Sahel for using the media to market fictitious achievements and fake reports of “surrendering” mujahideen, while disregarding “the racist, criminal acts of killing and displacement conducted by the defeated Malian army” and the targeting of people’s homes and businesses by Turkish drones.
“Strategic Failure To End Jihad” In Sahel
Addressing Muslims, Al-Ansari states that GSIM has a firm belief in its religious duty and historical responsibilities towards Muslims, and in its responsibility for the people in the region. Together with Muslims elsewhere in general, he urges all of them to join in and contribute to the fight to counter the aggression of those who took power by coups, aided by Turkey and Russia, “to stop the racist campaigns of genocide and forced displacement, and to fulfill the duty of jihad for the sake of Allah and the sake of the oppressed.”
Al-Ansari further warns people in the region – Fulanis, Tuareg, and Arabs – not to heed the calls by prominent figures, who, he claims, sow the deeds of strife and division, and only strive to achieve positions of power which they have been seeking for decades.
In addition, the commander asserts that the armies of the region, and their allies among the Russians, continue to hide the real count of their material and human losses. He notes that such attempts remain ineffective, and do not change the reality of their strategic failure to end jihad.