By Admin.

Jihadists aligned with the Islamic State group are advancing in northeastern Mali, prompting terrified citizens to flee their homes, sources there say. The Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) launched an offensive in the Gao and Menaka regions in March, triggering heavy fighting with local armed groups and rival jihadists.

“If nothing is done, the whole region will be occupied” by jihadists, a human rights campaigner, contacted by AFP on WhatsApp, said on condition of anonymity. Witnesses and other sources contacted by AFP confirmed the ISGS’ sustained push in this remote and dangerous area, and rights campaigners say civilians have been massacred.

The strategic towns of Gao and Menaka have long been in the forefront of Mali’s decade-long jihadist crisis. Since 2012, thousands have died and hundreds of thousands have fled their homes, in an insurgency that has spread to neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso.

Despair at the toll prompted Malian army officers to mount a coup in 2020. The junta has brought in Russian paramilitaries — a move that prompted France to pull out troops who had been battling jihadists for nine years.

Massacres.

Outside the two towns, the region is largely desert, populated mainly by nomads. They bore the brunt of clashes between pro-independence Tuaregs and the Malian army between 2012 and 2015. They are now caught in the crossfire between the ISGS on the one side and a motley array of armed groups on the other. The latter comprise Al-Qaeda jihadists; pro-independence fighters who signed up to a peace deal with the government in 2015; and pro-government Tuareg combatants who had previously fought the pro-independence groups.

The UN and NGOs have reported repeated attacks against communities accused of abetting the enemy or refusing to join the jihadists.

Source: AFP