'Dead' Mali jihadist Amadou Koufa reappears in video Published duration 2 March 2019

image copyright Reuters image caption French troops helped the Malian army to push back jihadists from northern Mali in 2013

A senior jihadist leader in Mali has reappeared in a video, months after the authorities said he had been killed.

The death of Amadou Koufa was widely reported, after a raid by French forces in November.

The video, in which Mr Koufa mocks the reports of his death, has been verified by Site, a US-based monitoring group.

French forces intervened in Mali in 2013, pushing back jihadists who had seized swathes of territory. However, the militants remain a threat.

Parts of the country are still out of the government's control.

After the November raid, a Malian army spokesman and the French defence minister "confirmed" the death of Mr Koufa, a senior member of Mali's most powerful jihadist group, JNIM,

Now a 19-minute video being circulated in Mali shows Amadou Koufa, in a white turban, mocking the French and Malian military forces.

A French military spokesman said the authorities there were in the process of authenticating the video.

Mr Koufa is described as a senior member of the Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) group that has carried out frequent attacks in Mali and neighbouring Burkina Faso.

He is a preacher as well as a jihadist leader.

France, the former colonial power, has thousands of troops in the volatile region to stem the insurgency.

image caption Mr Koufa was reported to have been killed in the central Mopti area, north of the capital Bamako