A Mauritanian, one of the main protagonists of the Sahelian jihad, was indicted on Saturday in New York for his role in the 2015 Mali attacks, in particular those of the La Terrasse restaurant and Bamako’s Radisson Blu, which left several dozen dead .
Fawaz Ould Ahmed, known as “Ibrahim 10”, is accused of having committed the March 2015 attack on the La Terrasse bar-restaurant, in which 5 people died. He is accused of having then organized the attacks against the Byblos hotel in Sévaré in August (13 dead), and the Radisson hotel (20 dead) in November.
Among the victims were Europeans, UN workers and an American.
He is accused in the United States of the latter’s murder and of his support for a terrorist organization, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI), as well as the illegal use of weapons and explosives.
Fawaz Ould Ahmed and another jihadist had already been sentenced to death in October 2020 in Mali for the attacks on La Terrasse and Radisson Blu.
During the trial he confirmed that he had committed the first attack and organized the second. He claimed to have acted “out of revenge” after the publication of the caricatures of the prophet of Islam by the French weekly Charlie Hebdo.
The defendant arrived on US soil Friday from Mali and was detained pending trial.
“Today we made it clear that the United States is steadfast in its commitment to bringing to justice those who commit barbaric acts of terrorism against innocent victims.“Brooklyn federal prosecutor Breon Peace said in a statement, citing the American who died in the attacks, a humanitarian worker.”killed more than 6,400 km from his home“.
Born in Nouakchott in the late 1970s, Fawaz Ould Ahmed became radicalized after the US intervention in Iraq in 2003.
In 2006 he joined the Algerian jihadist leader’s training camps in the Sahara, before participating in the late 2008 kidnapping of two Canadian diplomats in Niger, a coup that made him gain prominence.
