French troops in Mali have announced that they have captured a key and senior member of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (IS-GS). The arrested commander has been identified as Oumeya Ould Albakaye.

According to the military, he was captured in an operation on the night of 11-12 June 2022. The operation was conducted near the border with Niger and it was conducted by the French air and ground troops.

Intelligence indicates that Albakaye is a very key and influential member that at one point was in line to succeed former IS-GS leader Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi, who was killed by French forces in August 2021. Albakaye is an explosives expert and has been the terror group’s chief in charge of Gourma in Mali and Oudalan in neighboring Burkina Faso.

The arrest comes as France prepares to complete its withdrawal from Mali after almost a decade of battling a jihadist insurgency in the country with the French-led Barkhane anti-insurgency force. Relations between Mali and France took a downward turn after the military seized power in Bamako in August 2020.