Morocco Investigates Deadly Attack on Truckers in Mali, Terrorism Suspected

On Saturday, an as yet unidentified armed group attacked Moroccan truckers heading towards Bamako. The DGED elements are working to solve the murder of two Moroccan truckers in Mali, reports Assahifa Arabic. Already, coordination between Moroccan and Malian intelligence services has been put in place. They are starting to identify the active groups in the area.

At this stage of the investigation, the DGED does not rule out the hypothesis of a terrorist attack, the Moroccan truckers being the only target. The intelligence services of the two countries continue the investigations to know the sponsors of the attack and their motivations. They are trying to determine whether it was a local or regional operation. According to the Malian press, it would be "dirty work" whose perpetrators would be "mercenaries". The objective of the sponsors of the attack will be to send a specific "message" to Morocco.

This attack comes at a time when Habboub Cherkaoui, head of the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations (BCIJ), had warned against the presence of 100 Polisario members active in the ranks of the "Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb" organization, based in the Sahel region. In a statement to Le360, Abdelilah Hifdi, president of the National Federation of Transport (FNT), also president of the CGEM group in the House of Advisors, accused Algeria and the separatist movement of being behind the attack.