Islamic Militant Group in Northern Mali Expanding Southward

DAKAR, Senegal — A relatively new al-Qaida offshoot in northern Mali has pushed south, seizing a town less than 200 kilometers from the Malian army frontline.

Since 2011, the militant Islamist sect has been involved in kidnapping for ransom, a suicide bombing in Algeria, and most recently the execution of an Algerian diplomat, taken hostage in northern Mali in April. Analysts say the sect is still defining itself. 

The Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, more commonly known by its French acronym MUJAO, is one of a kaleidoscope of allied, armed Islamist groups in control of northern Mali.

The group emerged from al-Qaida's North Africa branch in 2011 with the aim of spreading jihad further south beyond the Sahara.

Ambitions

MUJAO seized the northern town of Douentza from a local self-defense militia on September 1. The town, in the Mopti region of Mali, marks the southernmost point of Islamist occupied territory, and its seizure has sparked concern in Bamako.

Northern community leader and analyst, Mohamed Ould Mahmoud, said MUJAO is eager to flex its muscle.

He said they want to show that they can move south, that they can go anywhere they want. He said MUJAO calls itself a West African jihadist movement and it has larger regional ambitions than the other Islamist groups in the north. Mahmoud said they want to prove themselves and are more unpredictable.

MUJAO was among the armed groups that took control of northern Mali following a military coup March 22 in Bamako. It has since consolidated its position in the northern town of Gao after pushing out Tuareg separatist rebels.

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from VOA News
Anne Look
September 04, 2012

Read more: http://www.voanews.com/content/islamic_militant_group_in_northern_mali_expanding_southward/1501473.html

Posted in: Al-Qaeda, Algeria, Bamako, Douentza, Islamism, Mali, MUJAO, West Africa