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MALI: A New Chapter of Violence in the North

Published On October 31, 2014 | News

While the world’s attention is fixed on the U.S.-led battle against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the global war on terror is suffering a serious setback in Mali, where resurgent Islamist militants have transformed the Northern part of the country into the deadliest place in the world for United Nations peacekeepers.

France officials said on Wednesday, 29th October, that a French soldier and about 20 Islamist militants were killed during a fierce clash in northern Mali near the Algerian border earlier in the day. Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian’s office said in a statement that French forces had battled a militant group of some 30 fighters in the Tigharghar valley, part of the mountainous Adrar des Ifoghas area. French forces had launched an operation over the weekend against militants who had returned to the region after being driven out last year.

Violence has spiked recently, following the drawdown of the French troops who had helped reconquer the territory from the region’s al Qaeda affiliate in early 2013 with a force of more than 4,500 soldiers. Today in Mali, there are only about 1,000 French troops, part of a regional French force that is combating extremists in five countries.

In the past three months, the U.N.’s 9,000-strong Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) has become the deadliest U.N. peacekeeping mission in the world. Despite these facts, France Defence Minister, Le Drian, criticised on Monday the slow deployment of U.N. peacekeepers in Mali’s volatile northern region and said he would send more troops to the area while the United Nations builds up its presence there.  People in the north were exposed to forced disappearances, torture, summary executions and sexual abuse, with most of the offences committed after March 2012 when Islamist extremists occupied large parts of territory.

There is a real concern about a new chapter of violence in the north. Complaints of human rights violations and the systematic victimisation of Tuareg and Arabs helped fuel the rebellion that broke out in January 2012. Human rights activists warn that the actions of small groups of Jihadists, staging attacks and ambushes in the north, will lead to new waves of reprisals from the Malian military, with Tuaregs and Arabs again targeted indiscriminately.

Sources:

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