Djamel Okacha

Djamel Okacha, nom de guerre Yahia Abou al-Hamman, was an Algerian jihadist who fought in the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) and later Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM). Okacha served as the commanders of Katiba al-Furqan and Katiba al-Mulathamoun within AQIM, and was appointed as the co-governor of Tombouctou Region during Ansar Dine's capture of the region during the 2012 Tuareg rebellion. Okacha was then appointed as the second-in-command of AQIM between 2012 and 2017, where he co-founded JNIM alongside Iyad Ag Ghaly and Amadou Kouffa. Okacha served as the second-in-command of JNIM until his death in 2019.

Biography Okacha was born on September 5, 1978, in Reghaïa, Algeria. He was close with either the Islamic Salvation Front or Armed Islamic Group as a teenager during the Algerian Civil War, which earned him an eighteen-month prison sentence in 1995. After Okacha's release, he befriended Abdelmalek Droukdel as the both of them grew up in Algiers. He joined the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) at its creation in 1998. In the early 2000s, Okacha was appointed the commander of Zone 2, which consisted of Tizi Ouzou Province. He also became a qadi, or judge, of the GSPC. Under the command of Mokhtar Belmokhtar, Okacha co-founded the Katiba al-Mulathamoun, one of the brigades of the GSPC. In 2009 he helped assassinate American aid worker Christopher Leggett. However, he was still on good terms with Abou Zeid, the head of another katiba within AQIM. In late 2012 and early 2013, Okacha helped Belmokhtar plan and perpetrate the In Amenas hostage crisis.

Okacha left Timbuktu with his men in January 2013 at the start of Operation Barkhane. He reportedly fought at the battle of Ifoghas that same year. On August 10, 2014, French forces captured an AQIM cell near Timbuktu, including a close confidant of Okacha named Abou Tourab.

In January 2016, Okacha applauded the November 2015 Paris attacks and welcomed Belmokhtar's return to AQIM in an interview with Mauritanian news agency al-Akhbar. He deplored Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi's defection to create the predecessor to the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, but stated he was still in contact with Sahrawi.

Okacha appeared alongside Ghaly, Kouffa, Abu Hassan al-Ansari, and Abu Abderrahman El Senhadji in a video announcing the merger of several Malian jihadist groups into Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) on January 2, 2017. Ghaly led the new group, and Okacha was appointed second-in-command and commander of Tombouctou Region.

Death Okacha was killed on February 21, 2019, during the battle of Elakla when a group of jihadist vehicles were intercepted by French forces. Another prominent jihadist within JNIM, Seifallah Ben Hassine, was killed during the battle as well. Droukdel also confirmed Okacha's death in February 2020.