FLEE OR DIE

Three years after the seizure of power by an unknown and ambitious soldier, Colonel Assimi Goïta, who is a repeat putschist, Mali sank into an incredible state sponsored violence against civilians. The head of the junta tries to justify this violence with a the fallacious motive and the politically magical expression :“fighting terrorism”. He, in fact extended the definition of “terrorist” to the independence movements of Azawad, signatories of the Algiers Agreement in 2015 which should have led to a more autonomous administration of the northern regions. However, the Malian authorities never implemented the agreement. Placed in the same basket as the jihadists they confronted because of the Malian army’s inability to defend the civilian populations, the pro-independance Tuaregs were thus criminalized.

In the end, it is the civilian population of Azawad that finds itself stuck between a rock and a hard place : on the one hand the jihadist groups which are still very active – the EIGS (Islamic State in the Great Sahara) and the GSIM (Group of support for Islam and Muslims) – and, on the other, the Malian army and its Russian auxiliaries. All of them committed horrific abuses and killings of civilians on an unspeakable scale and cruelty.

The hellish life that the population of the north is subjected to leaves it only two options : flee or die. Those who do not have the means to leave to join the refugee camps (that of Mbéra in Mauritania today records a record influx of more than 200,000 people) are the most vulnerable. The situation is dramatic and a heavy curtain of silence fell on these killings.
The pictures and testimonies of the victims stream in, accumulate and bear witness to an unbearable and repetitive reality. Babies burned, children – many children from nomadic camps – killed by drones, women burned, adolescents and men mistreated, kidnapped and found murdered with a shot in the head. The smallest camps or villages that are unfortunate enough to be on the route of these deadly Malian patrols of soldiers and bloodthirsty militiamen are systematically destroyed and burned, their inhabitants – primarily male – are killed, their goods stolen, their shops looted, and the infrastructures (wells, granaries, schools, residences, etc.) and plant resources (pastures, seeds) set on fire.

What justifies this extreme violence perpetrated by the Malian military and Russian militia against vulnerable civilians in Azawad ? Why such horrendous abuses that result in unimaginable scenes of inhumanity, such as the atrocious mutilations of disembowelled, mutilated corpses, severed genitals and heads ? Who are the deranged minds that carry out such abject atrocities, true crimes against humanity in violation of all human rights ?

Alongside the establishment of this climate of terror among the civilian populations of Azawad, there are other facts that are troubling. In the name of recovering national “sovereignty”, the junta in power which expelled Western organizations and armies (UN, France, United States, etc.) placed itself under the rule of a new master : Russia. The latter intervened militarily by sending in Russian militiamen from the Wagner Group (between 2000 and 2500 troops depending on sources) which allowed the junta to strengthen its grip on power. Russian military support allowed the Malian army to extend its control to include the town of Kidal, attacking the Tuareg, Arab and Fulani civilian populations along the way. The Malian junta has also obtained ground and aerial weapons from Russia, notably Turkish-made drones which it uses extensively and which wreak havoc among defenseless civilians.

What is the exchange currency for this Russian “aid” ? As always, it has to do with mineral riches. New partnerships have been established with aid providers, old mining contracts with unfavorable margins for Mali have been decried. But it is first and foremost to protect itself from any coups, a real priority for the junta, that Mali finds itself heavily indebted to Russia. It is difficult to imagine that the junta has much room for negotiation with the Wagner forces that protect its power.
In this context, one can draw the correspondence between the blood shed by the civilians of Azawad and the coveted gold of their territory, where artisanal gold miners are systematically murdered by Russian militiamen and Malian soldiers.

The Malian authorities, for their part, are clearly banking on Mali’s mining future. They announced the drawing of an aerial map of the mining resources that they wish to put into operation within a very short period of just 18 months.
18 months of killings in order to empty the territory of all its inhabitants who have been claiming their ancestral land rights and their civil rights for decades ? This is the plan that is emerging from the criminal attacks of the junta and its auxiliaries.

Since taking power, the head of the junta, Colonel Goïta, has literally gained a lot of weight and seems to be running the affairs of the state so as to continue“eating” and gaining weight in every sense of the word. It is with this objective in mind that he decided to extend the "transition" for 5 years without elections, that he banned political parties, associations, journalists likely to criticize him, that he put many of his people in key government positions, that he wishes to acquire the rank of General, that he intends to open dialogue with the jihadist groups that, otherwise, he is incapable of fighting even though they are at the gates from Bamako. To cover up the establishment of this bloody dictatorship, the junta resorted to massive propaganda which reversed the situation and presented the executioners as victims. How long will this gross disinformation continue on the backs of on a battered population ?

Dictatorship, nepotism, corruption, repression, violation of human rights are guiding principles of this government, like the previous, focused on personal profit, at the cost of the lives of hundreds of nomad or villager civilians, who have nothing left but flee or die, amid total international indifference. It isn’t just human lives that disappear, it is also a way of life, a particularly rich culture, knowledge and practices, that have been able to preserve and protect the plants, the hydraulic, human, animal, spiritual and mineral resources of the desert to make it life sustaining.

Hélène Claudot-Hawad.
Traduction : Ḥsen Larbi

Read also :
– Épuration ethnique dans l’Azawad. Junte malienne et Wagner responsables de cimes contre l’humanité
– Faim, sécheresse et violence : situation préoccupante dans l’Azawad
– Menaces contre les civils de l’Azawad
– L’Azawad face aux atrocités de l’État malien et de Wagner

L’armée nigérienne s’y met :
Le 28 mai 2024, ce sont des éléments des FDS (Forces de défense et de sécurité) de l’armée nigérienne qui ont froidement exécuté neuf civils (huit Touaregs et un Peul) dans un hameau près de Torodi dans la région de Tillaberi", un acte abjecte qualifié de "barbarie génocidaire" par Alhassane Intinicar, président du PNPD (Parti nigérien pour la paix et le développement / Akal-Kassa) qui s’est rendu auprès des familles endeuillées.
La Rédaction.