Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi, considered one of the most ruthless jihadists in the Sahel and France’s top enemy in the troubled African region, was declared killed on Thursday (Friday in Manila). A rigid doctrinaire who earned a reputation for lopping off the hands of thieves, al-Sahrawi headed the highly active Islamic State affiliate in the central Sahel. The French army said it had killed al-Sahrawi in an air strike while he was riding a motorbike in northern Mali, capping weeks of rumors that he had died. The Sahel has been engulfed in a brutal jihadist insurgency since Islamists seized control of northern Mali in 2012. France, the former colonial power, intervened in Mali in 2013 and beat the jihadists back.