‘DEAD’ MALI JIHADIST AMADOU KOUFA REAPPEARS IN VIDEO
Asenior jihadist leader in Mali has reappeared in a video, months after the authorities said he had been killed. The death of Amadou Koufa was widely reported, after a raid by French forces in November.
The video, in which Mr Koufa mocks the reports of his death, has been verified by Site, a US-based monitoring group.
French forces intervened in Mali in 2013, pushing back jihadists who had seized swathes of territory. However, the militants remain a threat.
Parts of the country are still out of the government’s control.
After the November raid, a Malian army spokesman and the French defence minister “confirmed” the death of Mr Koufa, a senior member of Mali’s most powerful jihadist group, JNIM,
Now a 19-minute video being circulated in Mali shows Amadou Koufa, in a white turban, mocking the French and Malian military forces.
A French military spokesman said the authorities there were in the process of authenticating the video.
Mr Koufa is described as a senior member of the Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) group that has carried out frequent attacks in Mali and neighbouring Burkina Faso.
He is a preacher as well as a jihadist leader. France, the former colonial power, has thousands of troops in the volatile region to stem the insurgency.