Al Qaeda North Africa names Algerian as new leader

Yazid Mubarak, also known as Abu Ubaida Yusuf Al Annabi, takes over after French forces killed Abdelmalek Droukdel in June

An image grab taken from a video reportedly showing a picture of Yazid Mubarak, also known as Abu Ubaida Yusuf Al Annabi, the new leader of Al Qaeda in North Africa. AFP

Al Qaeda's North African branch said it appointed a new leader after confirming the death of its former chief, who was killed in June by French forces.

According to the Washington-based SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist sites, the appointment of Algerian Yazid Mubarak, also known as Abu Ubaida Yusuf Al Annabi, was announced in a video published on Saturday, waiting more than five months to publicly name Droukdel’s successor.

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, known as AQIM, also showed the dead body of its former leader, Abdelmalek Droukdel, for the first time.

Droukdel was killed in Mali by French forces who had been hunting him in the sub-Sahara region for years.

AQIM also confirmed the death of Swiss missionary Beatrice Stockly, who was captured in January 2016 in Mali’s northern city of Timbuktu. The group attributed her death to a failed attempt by “French crusaders” to free her, and also held the Swiss government responsible for “delaying the issue and making futile efforts”, according to SITE.

Al Qaeda's North Africa branch has made millions of dollars from abducting foreigners for ransom over the years and has made large parts of West Africa too dangerous for aid groups to access.

Rita Katz, SITE director, said that Mubarak’s appointment as AQIM's new leader was not surprising given that he featured in the group's propaganda over the past few years, was involved in its core operations and is also the head of the media branch of AQIM.

Mubarak is a major ideologue in Al Qaeda’s global network, and has been on the American international terrorist blacklist since September 2015, according to the Counter Extremism Project.

In 2013, Mubarak famously demanded that Muslims retaliate against France's intervention in Mali, and after Osama bin Laden was killed in May 2011,Mubark pledged allegiance to Ayman al-Zawahiri on AQIM’s behalf.

Earlier this month, France's anti-extremist force in Mali announced that they had killed the military commander of an Al Qaeda-aligned group linked to attacks in the region.

The killing of Ba Ag Moussa was a positive step for the thousands-strong French Barkhane force that have been stationed in the Sahel region of Africa for over half a decade, in a grinding fight against numerous extremist militant groups who are often also fighting each other.