Mali: Gilles Le Guen, a Breton sailor became jihadist

Converted to Islam 30 years, Gilles Le Guen became Abdel Jelil was radicalized over his travels in Africa.Since 2011, he lived in Timbuktu with his family where he has been arrested. Portrait of an atypical jihadist.

He was probably the French jihadist most wanted Paris. Gilles Le Guen, fifties Breton converted long to Islam, was captured by French forces in the region of Timbuktu , in northern Mali, in the night of 28 April 29. Presented to Malian authorities, should be deported to France in the next day or the next week, according to RTL radio, which is expected to learn about the jihadist who calls himself Abdel Jelil.
Gilles Le Guen began talking to him in the fall of 2012, when it appears openly in a video broadcast by news agency Mauritanian Sahara Media, preferred media relay extremist fighters in northern Mali. Installed in front of the black flag of jihad, armed with an assault rifle, it puts France warned against any military intervention in Mali. Such a move "will make our self as one of our Afghan brothers and Palestine struggle. We will fight until the end," he said then.

Born in Loire-Atlantique around the 1960s, Gilles Le Guen has officiated for several years in the Merchant Navy after graduating in the late 1980s. "He loves the sea, it is often referred to," said Serge Daniel, the corresponding FRANCE 24 and RFI in Bamako, who met before Serval operation when Timbuktu was still occupied by the Islamists.
"A simple shepherd motorcycle"
His conversion to Islam in 1985, during which time he was employed by the NGO Doctors Without Borders for logistical tasks, according to information from Slate.fr , citing a part of the organization.
It was in the 2000s, Gilles Le Guen was gradually radicalized by multiplying travel in Ethiopia, Mauritania and Morocco, where he holds a farm for three years. "I'm in the footsteps of Osama bin Laden," he said about his career in an interview with the Express in January.
In 2011, it came to Mali and moved to Timbuktu, where he lives with his wife and five children now aged four to twelve years. Some signs of radicalization then appear with him: he gives one of his teenage daughters in marriage still a jihadist and follows a military training.
But for Serge Daniel, he did not seem to be a "real doctrineur": "When I met him, it was a simple shepherd who was traveling on a motorcycle, he raised goats and took care of the distribution of energy, including electricity in Timbuktu, "he says.
Was he trying to make?
Following the release of his video threats in October 2012, everything accelerates. The France and begins to discover Gilles Le Guen, who describes himself as a "marginal" reject "imperialism" and "consumer society."
In January 2013, after the start of the Serval operation, it is believed to have participated in the taking of hostages on the gas site Amenas, Algeria , but there is no evidence to establish his involvement. According to a police officer specializing in the fight against terrorism, participation is unlikely because it would be considered "unreliable element" Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
The leaders of the terrorist organization have also arrested and detained for several days in November 2012. But the reason for his arrest by AQIM remains unclear. According to the U.S. magazine "Foreign Policy" cited by Slate.fr, Gilles Le Guen was suspected by terrorists to be a spy for the West. Other sources, however, believe he crumpled AQIM leaders wanting one day prevent many jihadists to bully a group of women in the streets of Timbuktu still under Islamic occupation.
His relations with AQIM did not seem in good shape, to also believe information Serge Daniel. "There was not any fighting position when the French forces have found. This is not a jihadist at the front who was arrested is a man who was rather tired. I would say that c It was a fugitive, he said. According to Malian security sources, he even tried to go ..., "he says.
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