Hamada Ould Mohamed Kheirou

Hamada Ould Mohamed Kheirou nom de guerre Abu Qum-Qum was a Mauritanian jihadist and the founder of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO/MOJWA).

Biography Kheirou was born in Ouad Naga and a descent of the marabout tribe of Tegounanett. In 2005, he was arrested in Nouakchott for instigating violence in a mosque, which he claimed was teaching untrue Islam. He escaped the city a few months later disguised as a woman.

Kheirou was arrested again on September 3, 2008, in Kita, Mali, but was released in April 2009 along with Idris Ould Mohamed Lemine in a prison exchange with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). He was released on the behest of Canada for the Canadian diplomats Robert Fowler and Louis Gay, according to Franco-Beninese journalist Serge Daniel. During his time in AQIM, Kheirou criticized the leadership of Abdelmalek Droukdel and accused the group of being dominated by Algerians and an inequitable distribution of money gathered from hostage-taking and trafficking. When the Mali War broke out in 2012, MOJWA fought against moderate Tuareg rebels and the Malian government.

Kheirou has been sanctioned by the United Nations and the United States, with the latter setting a $5 million bounty for his arrest.

In 2014, he announced his allegiance to the Islamic State, and his refusal of the merger between MOJWA and Al-Mourabitoun. Kheirou is believed to have fled to and lived in Sirte, Libya, when the city was controlled of the Islamic State. In Libya, he fought with the Shura Council of Mujahideen in Derna before fleeing to Sirte. Mauritanian media reported he was killed in a 2017 airstrike in Libya.