La campagne anti-française d'Al-Qaida au Sahara

Jean-Pierre Filiu (1)

1 CERI - Centre de recherches internationales (Sciences Po, CNRS)

Faced with difficulties in its "sanctuaries" in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Al-Qaeda is attempting to open up a new front in its self-declared war on the West. Its aim is for the Sahara to become the scene of an international jihad against the new "crusaders", singling out France -the region's former colonial power -as enemy number one. In January 2007, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), an offshoot of the Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA), declared its allegiance to Osama Bin Laden's organization, subsequently renaming itself "Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb" (AQIM). The terrorist group has since waged a series of attacks in Algeria, Mali and Niger in an attempt to push France to send in troops. A growing number of kidnapped hostages have been killed, several of them French civilians. The French government must not give in to this provocation and must refrain from deploying armed forces in the region as this is precisely what Bin Laden and his henchmen want.

Domaines: Science politique

Jean-Pierre Filiu. La campagne anti-française d'Al-Qaida au Sahara. Politique internationale, 2011, 131, pp.147 - 160. ⟨hal-03461481⟩