Franck Elong Abé (Jihadi Militant, France)

• Full name: Franck Elong Abé
• Pseudonym: N/a
• Alternatives: N/a
• Location: France, fmr Afghanistan
• Affiliation: unaffiliated, Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan [IIA]

Franck Elong Abé (°ca 1985) is a Cameroonian Islamist who moved to France as a child. He grew up in Normandy but habitually ran into trouble with the law as a young man.¹ Elong Abé earned a lengthy criminal record before turning to radical Islam during a stint in prison.² In 2011, Elong Abé traveled to Afghanistan where he reportedly linked up with the forces of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.³ Elong Abé was caught by American forces in 2012 and held at the detention facility in Bagram until his extradition to France in 2014.⁴ A French court later sentenced him to nine years in prison for terrorist association and preparing to launch attacks.⁵

Elong Abé became a notoriously difficult prisoner. In February 2015, he allegedly attempted suicide.⁶ The following month, Elong Abé took a psychiatric intern hostage in a bid to escape from a prison in the north of France.⁷ On Jun. 02 of that year, he was handed a four-year prison term for this action.⁸ In the summer of 2019, Elong Abé destroyed furniture and set fires in his cell on fourteen occasions.⁹ A court sentenced him to an extra nine months behind bars for these acts of vandalism.¹⁰ On Mar. 02, 2022, Elong Abé assaulted, strangled and critically injured an imprisoned Corsican separatist terrorist inside a prison sports hall following an altercation over the latter’s blasphemic utterances.¹¹ His victim later died.