2023-07-13 11:32:17
“Murders”, “rapes”, “looting”… A report published Thursday by Human Rights Watch indicates that the violence committed by jihadist groups is increasing in northeastern Mali. The NGO calls on the Malian authorities to “redouble their efforts” to protect civilians, and recalls its concerns about the decision to withdraw the UN peacekeeping mission requested by Bamako.
Published on: 07/13/2023 – 13:32
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Jihadist groups have multiplied since January 2023 “murders”, “rapes” and “looting” on a large scale against civilians in northeastern Mali, “forcing thousands of people to flee these regions”, indicated, Thursday 13 July, a Human Rights Watch report.
“Security has deteriorated sharply due to clashes between two Islamist armed groups”, the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (EIGS) and the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (GSIM, or JNIM according to the Arabic acronym), linked to Al-Qaeda, who seek to control supply routes and increase their influence, explained the human rights organization.
“Armed Islamist groups are brutally attacking civilians and helping fuel a large-scale humanitarian emergency,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch.
The NGO says it has documented eight attacks between January and June, six in the Gao region and two in the Ménaka region in the northeast, the scene for months of a push by the Islamic State group in the greater Sahara. (EIGS). According to her, they would have caused “hundreds” of deaths and forced thousands of people to flee the area.
Concern around the withdrawal of the Minusma
The NGO reports testimonies collected by its investigators and describing combatants armed with “assault rifles”, “grenade launchers”, and dressed in civilian clothes or fatigues with identifiable turbans.
They spoke several local languages (Tamashek, Fulfulde, Songhai and Hausa), as well as Arabic, and sometimes carried the flag of the Islamic State group, according to accounts.
The organization also expressed concern about the decision to withdraw the UN peacekeeping mission (Minusma) requested by Bamako, which will take place over six months until the end of 2023. It risks, according to the report, “undermining” efforts to bring accountability for conflict-related abuses.
Read alsoDeparture of Minusma: between Mali and the UN mission, a divorce has become inevitable
Ilaria Allegrozzi thus calls on the Malian authorities to “redouble their efforts” to protect civilians and to “work in close collaboration” with their international partners.
The report also indicates that it has documented “serious abuses” committed by the Malian security forces and by presumed forces from the Russian private security company Wagner, whose actions have been decried in various countries.
The junta in power since 2020 has turned away from France to turn politically and militarily towards Russia. She denies Wagner’s presence and speaks of Russian military instructors being deployed in the name of state-to-state cooperation.
The UN had accused, in May, in a report, the Malian army and “foreign” fighters of having executed in March 2022 at least 500 people during an anti-jihadist operation in the center of the country, which refutes the Malian junta.
Mali has been in the grip of a deep security crisis since 2012, fueled by jihadist and separatist groups or self-defense groups. Starting from the north, it spread to the center of the country, to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.
With AFP
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