{{Algerian Djamel Okacha has replaced Abdelhamid Abou Zeid as leader of al Qaeda-linked group AQIM in the Sahara region, Algerian Ennahar TV said on Sunday.}}<\/p>\n
Abou Zeid was killed by Chadian soldiers in northern Mali a few weeks ago.<\/p>\n
Okacha, also known as Yahia Abu El Hamam, joined AQIM northern Mali in 2004, a security source with knowledge of AQIM told Reuters.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was present at the attack against a military barracks in Mauritania in 2005, and he was also present in the killing of an American in 2009,\u201d the source said, referring to aid worker Christopher Leggett.<\/p>\n
Okacha, 34, is close to AQIM\u2019s leader Abdelmalek Droukdel as they belong to the Group of Algiers, a reference to militants born in the capital region.<\/p>\n
\u201cOkacha is Droukdel\u2019s right hand. They have spent 12 years together in the north, before Okacha joined the south,\u201d the security source told Reuters.<\/p>\n
Okacha\u2019s priority is to reorganize AQIM after it registered the losses of two heavyweight leaders, Abu Zeid and Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the source said.<\/p>\n
France launched a joint military campaign with some African armies in Mali in January to break Islamist rebels\u2019 hold on the region, saying the militants posed a risk to the security of West Africa and Europe.<\/p>\n
{Reuters}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{{Algerian Djamel Okacha has replaced Abdelhamid Abou Zeid as leader of al Qaeda-linked group AQIM in the Sahara region, Algerian Ennahar TV said on Sunday.}} Abou Zeid was killed by Chadian soldiers in northern Mali a few weeks ago. Okacha, also known as Yahia Abu El Hamam, joined AQIM northern Mali in 2004, a security […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-6701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6701\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6701"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=6701"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=6701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}