An Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist group on Tuesday claimed responsibility for taking the
lives of two French soldiers three days ago in Mali, AFP reported. They were
killed when their vehicle hit an explosive device.

The Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM) said it had ‘detonated the
explosive device’ as the vehicle passed by, ‘bringing the toll to five in less
than a week’, in a statement released by its propaganda platform Al-Zallaqa
late on Monday.

The death toll of French soldiers killed in the West African nation
since France intervened in 2013 to assist keeping jihadist forces away, touched
50.

The attack claimed the lives of corporal Loic Risser, 24, and seargent Yvonne
Huynh, 33, the first female soldier killed since the French operation began in
the Sahel region.  

While GSIM assumed responsibility of the Mali attack, the group denied
having any hand in the attack on two villages in Western Niger on Saturday in
which 100 people were killed.

“This attack, whoever carried it out, is not different from the
massacres of the French occupiers and criminal militias, the GSIM said, adding
that its “jihad” has not turned against the people, and vowed
reprisals.

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The group was apparently referring to the Islamic State in the Greater
Sahara (EIGS), its great rival in the region.

One year ago, French President Emmanuel Macron designated the EIGS as
the number one enemy in the Sahel region.

Since then the GSIM has grown in strength, and in November, Barkhane
force commander Marc Conruyt named the group the ‘most dangerous’ in the
region.

France’s Barkhane operation counts 5,100 troops spread across the arid
Sahel region and has been fighting jihadist groups alongside soldiers from
Mauritania, Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, who together make up the G5
Sahel group.

The GSIM statement was authenticated by SITE Intelligence, which
monitors jihadist activities worldwide.