72-årige jihadistledaren hotar juntans makt i Mali

Iyad Ag Ghali (born 1954), also known by the nom de guerre Abu al-Fadl, is a Malian Tuareg Islamist militant and former musician who is the founder and leader of the Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) since 2017. Born in the Kidal Region in northern Mali into the Ifogha tribe of Tuaregs, Ghali was a percussionist for the musical collective Tinariwen. He participated in the Tuareg rebellions against the government of Mali since the 1980s. He founded the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (PMLA) in 1988 and later became popular figure amongst Azawadian seperatists. In 1991, he signed the Tamanrasset Accords and, after the 1996 ceasefire, normalised relations with the Malian government. In 2008, Ghali was appointed as a member of Mali's diplomatic staff in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, by President Amadou Toumani Touré. Once a singer, drinker and chain-smoker, Ghali became increasingly religious after being proselytised by Pakistani Islamic scholars affiliated with the Tablighi Jamaat in Saudi Arabia. Ghali soon developed ties with jihadists in Saudi Arabia, after which he was called back to Mali and put under suspicion. Following the outbreak of the Mali War, Ghali founded the Islamist militant group Ansar Dine and became its leader. In February 2013, the US Department of State designated Ghali as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. In 2017, Ghali's Ansar Dine and other Islamist groups merged into a united JNIM, of which Ghali was elected the emir. Under his leadership, the JNIM has gained territory in most of eastern Mali.