Hundreds of civilians left their villages in northern Mali on the orders of the jihadists or out of fear, a week after attacks that left 42 dead, according to a final report from the authorities.
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“
The displaced are more and more numerous after the last jihadist attack.
The terrorists gave orders to the populations to leave their villages.
Other civilians left out of fear.
There are several hundred to more than a thousand displaced people,
”a senior administrative official in the area told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The villages of Karou, Ouatagouna and Daoutegeft, three neighboring localities and close to the border with Niger in the Gao region, were the target of attacks attributed to the jihadists on August 8.
A document from the prefecture consulted by AFP initially mentioned the death of 51 villagers.
Two million displaced people in the Sahel
In fact, 42 people were killed, a government official told AFP, also on condition of anonymity. "
Deaths had been counted several times and people whom we had not heard from were considered killed,
" he explained. Briefly contacted by phone, a displaced person who arrived Monday in the city of Ansongo with his family spoke of "
real fear
" which grips the inhabitants of localities where the state is absent. “
We walked for four days to come to Ansongo. The jihadists have asked people to leave because we are (allegedly) spies for the Malian army. We don't have to eat. Everyone is afraid,
”he added.
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Since 2012 and the outbreak of independence and jihadist rebellions in the North, Mali has been plunged into a multifaceted turmoil that has left thousands dead, civilians and combatants, despite the support of the international community and the intervention of forces from the UN, African and French.
The violence spread to the center of the country, then to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger, particularly affecting civilian populations.
The number of people displaced within their country due to abuses by armed groups and criminal gangs has exceeded two million in the Sahel, the UN refugee agency indicated in early 2021. It is four times more than two years earlier. The agency also counted more than 850,000 refugees in the Sahel.
