“Freeing an individual of this calibre will obviously allow him to again take up his jihadist activities and continue to commit crimes.” Why did Mauritania free such a man? Could it be that the Mauritanian government is sympathetic to his cause? That seems obvious, but no Western government will face it or its implications.
“Mauritania frees senior Malian Islamist insurgent,” by Joe Bavier, Reuters, August 6, 2015:
ABIDJAN (Reuters) – A senior Malian Islamist militant has been freed from jail in Mauritania, according to a group investigating his alleged involvement in crimes by Islamist rebels during their occupation of northern Mali.
Sidi Mohamed Ould Mohamed Ould Bouamama, better known as Sanda Ould Bouamama, is a former spokesman for Ansar Dine, an al Qaeda-linked group that joined with other Islamist fighters to seize Mali’s desert north in 2012.
Though driven from northern towns and cities by a French-led military operation a year later, remnants of the Islamist groups remain active.
Ansar Dine last month claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on U.N. peacekeepers and the Malian army in the capital Bamako and border areas near Ivory Coast and Mauritania.
“Freeing an individual of this calibre will obviously allow him to again take up his jihadist activities and continue to commit crimes,” Florent Geel, Africa Desk Director of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), told Reuters.
Geel said FIDH had confirmed that Ould Bouamama was released from detention on Monday and his current whereabouts were unknown….