Magharebia
By Jemal Oumar in Nouakchott for Magharebia
In a desperate attempt to boost the morale of terrorists in northern Mali, al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri called on Maghreb youth to support the umma.
The international military coalition in Mali is decimating al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and its affiliates in northern Mali. The organisation has incurred huge losses, both human and logistical.
The latest attempt to motivate the beleaguered Mali terrorists came late Saturday (April 6th) from the head of al-Qaeda central. In his first online message since last fall, Ayman al-Zawahiridelivered what he described as a call to support the umma.
He added that France would be defeated in its war against terrorists in the Ifoghas Mountains at the hands of “Maghreb youth”.
“I call upon our Muslim nation in Mali to hold and be patient, and hopefully, inflict a new defeat to the global crusade,” al-Zawahiri said in the audio message released by As-Sahab Foundation for Islamic Media Publication.
The online message is designed to “encourage al-Qaeda leaders and the elements who are still with them in the mountains, as well as those who have been dispersed in the desert and are hiding as silent cells”, analyst Abdelhamid al-Ansari said.
“The appearance of al-Zawahiri at this particular time is like the tranquiliser administered to the patient at a critical stage of illness; it may tranquilise but will never cure,” he added.
Al-Qaeda is starting to realise “the difficult situation of the Maghreb branch”, al-Ansari noted.
“This is the only available option for the parent organisation, which almost collapsed following the death of bin Laden and the liquidation of its top leaders.”
According to security analyst Abdallah Ould Omar, al-Zawahiri is exploiting the deteriorating security situation in Tunisia and Libya. He is also exploiting the unemployment issue in Maghreb countries, Ould Omar said.
“I don’t think that this call will resonate with Maghreb youth, who are moving now towards employment opportunities,” he added.
“This is for a simple reason: the young people who are demonstrating today are looking forward to developing their countries economically, contrary to what Ayman al-Zawahiri, other proponents of radical ideology and even radical youths, such as Tunisia’s salafists, wish,” the analyst stated.
Unemployment and the failure of the current political experience “are behind much of their radical beliefs”, Ould Omar said. Such beliefs may disappear, however, when the circumstances that created them are gone, he said.
The conflict in northern Mali is unlikely to turn North Africa into another Arabian peninsula, he said, despite the fact that this may be a goal for al-Qaeda central.
Sid Ahmed Ould Tfeil, an analyst and expert in Salafist groups’ ideology, said that that al-Zawahiri’s audio recording “would encourage the mujahideen to travel to Mali through Somalia, Nigeria and Niger to open a new front there”.
“But this front is unlikely to realise any success,” he said. “It will instead be a grave for the mujahideen.”
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