DOUBLE TERRORIST ATTACK IN MALI

AT LEAST 64 DEAD

The attackers targeted a boat allowing civilians to connect the towns of Gao and Mopti across flooded plains during the rainy season. They also attacked a military camp in the Gao region.

An Islamist group behind this attack

These two attacks were claimed by the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM or JNIM), a jihadist alliance affiliated with Al-Qaeda. The Malian shipping company indicated that the boat had been targeted by "at least three rockets fired at the engine. Several passengers threw themselves into the water as soon as the first shots were fired. The boat, named "Timbuktu", can carry 300 passengers. Soldiers were also on board.

The GSIM had announced a few weeks earlier that it was imposing a blockade on Timbuktu.

The Malian government announces in a press release "a provisional death toll of 49 civilians and 15 soldiers" and assures that around fifty insurgents were killed by the security forces. The government reports numerous injuries. Three days of national mourning have been declared.

Major axis of the Sahelian situation, the jihadist insurgency

After the coup d'état in Mali, justified among other things by the country's insecurity in the face of jihadists, and the putschists' promise to restore security, deadly attacks continue in Mali as throughout the Sahel. In Niger, according to General Abdourahamane Tiani, the military overthrew President Bazoum "because of an imminent threat which would have affected not only the Republic of Niger, but also Nigeria."

The new strongman of Niger had justified the coup d'état by "the security deterioration" in the country, undermined by the violence of jihadist groups like neighboring Mali and Burkina, also led by soldiers and who displayed their solidarity with Niamey.

Whether the origin of these movements comes from outside, precisely from “Wahhabi” Islam coming from the Persian Gulf or whether these insurgencies are linked to local demands, the various jihadist movements are strengthening themselves largely on economic bases. but also by the exploitation of local conflicts and the loss of confidence in the central State.

Then, the establishment of “proto-States” or “parallel governances” mainly in rural areas allows these movements to survive and establish themselves over the long term. They impose control on markets and local chiefdoms, collect taxes, and open Koranic schools.

This domination of populations is paradoxical, because Islamist terrorists reign in ambient terror while restoring part of social services.