Mali, Islamist armed groups continue to sow death and violence throughout the country

ROME – Islamist armed groups have been killing, raping and looting villages in northeastern Mali since January 2023, writes Human Rights Watch. Thousands of people were forced to flee the Ménaka and Gao regions. Despite the abuses, Mali’s transitional military government won UN Security Council approval for the departure of peacekeeping forces, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). , starting July 1st.

Clashes between Islamist groups. Security in the Ménaka and Gao regions has deteriorated due to clashes between the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) and the rival Al-Qaeda-linked group for support of Islam and Muslims (Jama’at Nusrat al- Islam wa al-Muslimeen, JNIM), as both Islamist armed groups seek to control supply routes and increase their areas of influence. The United Nations reports that fighting across Mali has forced 375,539 people from their homes, mainly in the regions of Gao, Kidal, Ménaka and Timbuktu, resulting in one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent years. The two groups use a so-called “displacement” strategy to showcase their power and impose their authority in Mali and neighboring Burkina Faso.

The attacks. Human Rights Watch documented eight assaults between January and June: six in the Gao region and two in the Ménaka region. ISGS fighters were armed with Kalashnikov-type rifles and sometimes rocket-propelled grenade launchers, rode motorcycles and pickup trucks, and were dressed in civilian clothes or military uniforms with identifiable turbans. Witnesses interviewed by the organization by telephone said that the fighters spoke local languages ​​in addition to Arabic, and sometimes they carried the flag of the Islamic State. Residents said fighters have stormed their villages, shooting, looting, burning, destroying property and in many cases threatening people to leave the area quickly. “They rounded up the whole village and gave us three days to leave,” said a 50-year-old man from the village of Essaylal, in Ménaka. A man from Bourra, in the Gao region, said that in February fighters linked to the Islamic State threatened him with death if he did not marry his 15-year-old daughter to them.

The lack of reliable information. Human Rights Watch it could not confirm the total death toll from attacks in Ménaka and Gao regions since January. The accounts of the few humanitarian workers left on the spot and witnesses of the abuses suggest that hundreds of civilians have been killed since January and tens of thousands instead have been forced to flee, thus losing livestock, livelihoods and objects worth. “Since January we have recorded over 100 civilians killed by ISGS in several villages around Ansongo, Gao region and dozens missing,” an aid worker based in the Ménaka region told HRW.

The withdrawal of the United Nations. On June 16, Mali’s transitional military government called on the UN Security Council to immediately withdraw MINUSMA, citing a “crisis of confidence” between the Malian authorities and the UN peacekeeping mission. On June 28, the Security Council voted to end MINUSMA’s mandate and remove the mission’s 15,000 armed and civilian personnel, to be completed by December 31. Already France in February 2022 had put an end to the nine-year military operation in Mali. Paris completed the withdrawal in August 2022.

Peacekeepers. Both the Malian army and MINUSMA had soldiers in the Gao, Ménaka and Ansongo regions. However these troops were able to conduct limited patrols, with little ability to protect civilians outside urban centres. The presence of the authorities is also very limited in the rural areas of north-eastern Mali. In a June 26 interview, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said members of the Wagner Group, a Russian private security firm, were in Mali where they were working “as instructors.” The Wagner Group is responsible for several atrocities in several African countries, including Mali and Ukraine.

The consequences of the UN withdrawal. In addition to the security impact in Mali, MINUSMA’s withdrawal could harm efforts to account for conflict-related abuses, he stresses Human Rights Watch, as the mission’s mandate also included monitoring and reporting on human rights violations in Mali.

humanitarian requests. In February, the Malian government and humanitarian groups in Mali drafted a 2023 response plan with a request for $751 million to meet the urgent needs of 5.7 million people. However, in June the plan remained underfunded, with more than 80 per cent of needs mainly related to food security unmet, despite the deteriorating humanitarian situation.