Malian jihadist group leader Hamaha alias 'Red Beard' reportedly killed 23 March

Omar Ould Hamaha, aka Red Beard, the man who declared firmly waiting for the French forces, was killed on 23 March by Kounta Arabs in clashes that took place in the Gao region.

It was the end of the game for he who claimed to fight for Jihad to better garnish his bank account through trading in cocaine. 

A Malian Arab of the Berabiche ethnic group, he gave his sister to Mokhtar Belmokhtar to benefit, both from his protection and from his mafia networks by reinforcing the idea that those who had taken control of northern Mali since April 2012 were more motivated by money than the exegetical reading of the Holy Quran.

Megalomaniac like all jihadist leaders, he had created his "Ansar Al Shari'ah" brigade with fighters from the MUJAO Movement [for Monotheism and Jihad in West Africa] and the "Al Moulathamine" brigade of his one eyed brother-in-law. 

Quickly overtaken by events during the attack by the allied forces last January, he quickly fled to Gao thinking he would be able to continue the fight by offering money to the unemployed youth in the region to shoot at international forces. Obviously, the money was coming from drug trafficking controlled by his friends including the infamous Baba Ould Cheikh, the man who sent to northern Mali the heavily loaded Boeing planes from South American cartels, the source of the "Air Cocaine" scandal.

He was also part of the sad team which kidnapped Westerners in Tindouf in 2011, an action claimed at the time by the MUJAO which was one of the first operations with the prime objective of getting money under the pretext of fighting for Islam.

It will be recalled, without great nostalgia, his patrols in 4x4 vehicles in Gao or Timbuktu, where he liked to scare the women and the children, vociferating against the West and France in particular. At the outbreak of the war, he was much more stealthy and timid when they had to face real soldiers this time.

He preferred to let young people get killed to, according to him , seek reinforcements, arms and supplies, which of course never came. 

He preferred probably to dye his beard with henna to look impressive. The use of the henna dye, usually reserved for women, certainly reflected a confused sexuality of one who loved being surrounded by young men. This detail did not escape his brother-in-law Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who has kept his distance in recent weeks. "Manly" friendships within the brigades should be discrete to be tolerated, while Omar Ould Hamaha had the reputation of being very "tactile." 

The death of Omar Ould Hamaha a few days after Abu Zayd well marks the end of narco-jihadism in the Sahel. A new era opens now for the youth in northern Mali, which hopefully will lead to peace.

 

 Source: MaliJet