BAMAKO, Mali: Former rebels in northern Mali on Tuesday accused the armed forces of carrying out new strikes on their positions, reflecting mounting tensions in the flashpoint region. A spokesman for the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) told an AFP reporter that the armed forces carried out air strikes on the group in Anefis, in the Kidal region, for the second day running. He did not give details of any losses. Local elected officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that air strikes had taken place but did not give further details.
The CMA brings together predominantly ethnic Tuaregs who in 2012 mounted a revolt in northern Mali. They were abetted by jihadists who later took their own insurgency into central Mali and then into neighboring Niger and Burkina Faso. In 2015, the CMA and other parties signed a peace agreement with Mali’s then-civilian government that formally ended the regional rebellion. The deal was hailed as historic, but it has always been fragile and parts of it remain unimplemented. Its future became clouded after relations went downhill between the former rebels and the junta that seized power in 2020.
The two sides have lately fallen out over the future of a UN military base at Ber—one of a string of facilities that United Nations peacekeepers are scheduled to vacate as they withdraw from Mali by December 31. On Monday, the government urged armed groups who signed the 2015 peace deal to "return to the negotiating table.” But at the same time, armed groups accused the Malian army of bombing their positions at Anefis but without causing casualties. The Malian army later published messages on social media saying they had "targeted a group of armed terrorist groups” and "neutralized” several combatants. The junta "has definitively and deliberately opted for escalation towards open hostilities, with consequences that are inevitably disastrous,” the CMA said late Monday.
The junta has pounded out a nationalist message since forcing out Mali’s elected president, Ibrahim Boubakar Keita, three years ago. Its hardline approach and alliance with Russia prompted France in 2022 to withdraw its military forces from Mali, ending a nine-year-long anti-jihadist mission there. France’s pullout is being followed by the UN’s decade-long peacekeeping mission MINUSMA. The 13,000 member force this year was ordered to leave under pressure from the junta. Meanwhile, the United Nations warned Tuesday that the political crisis in Niger and the sanctions imposed against the coup regime risk triggering "catastrophic” humanitarian effects.
UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, said it had revised contingency planning for Niger since a military coup on July 26 toppled President Mohamed Bazoum. "The ongoing political crisis, with no clear solution in sight, is generating uncertainty and concern as the country continues to experience repeated attacks by non-state armed groups, especially near the Mali and Burkina Faso borders,” Emmanuel Gignac, UNHCR’s representative in Niger, told reporters in Geneva. With violence and attacks displacing more than 20,000 people in the past month alone, he cautioned that "the situation has heightened protection risks for refugees, asylum-seekers and their hosts”.
UNHCR witnessed a 50-percent increase in so-called protection incidents, including kidnapping, gender-based violence and domestic violence, just in the five days following the coup, he said. Particularly concerning, he said, was that the sanctions currently include no humanitarian exceptions, which could lead to a dire lack of food and other aid to those most in need.
While the full impact of the sanctions may not be felt immediately, Gignac warned that over time, "If they are not lifted ... and we are not able to bring in sufficient humanitarian aid, it could have some catastrophic effects”. The sanctions, along with an expected increase in violence by non-state armed groups "have worsened the already dire humanitarian outlook for vulnerable populations,” UNHCR warned. Most at risk were the some 350,000 Niger nationals already displaced inside the country and the equal number of refugees and asylum seekers from neighboring countries. –AFP