Mali: NGOs fear general paralysis due to "extreme" controls
The restrictions on NGOs could particularly affect the very many internally displaced persons from the Malian conflicts.
Here, a Malian takes refuge in a camp for displaced people in Bamako, November 9, 2022. (illustration) AFP - OUSMANE MAKAVELI
Text by: David Baché
3 mins
The Malian transitional authorities have provided details on the methods of application and control of the ban on NGOs carrying out activities supported by the French State, whether financially, but also materially or technically.
Among the rules which arouse worried reactions from Malian and foreign associative actors, after the announcement on November 21, the sources of financing will have to be validated by the government.
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Funding sources will now have to be validated by the Ministry of Territorial Administration: annually for Malian organisations,
monthly for foreign organisations
.
The latter will have to present each month the situation of their bank accounts with the origin of the funds, and provide a report of their activities.
Foreign NGOs will even have to justify each of their purchases to local government officials.
"
We were already reporting on our activities and our finances: it's normal, we're ready for it
," begins a French humanitarian, "
but there they complicate things to the extreme
!"
»
He and other humanitarian sources, Malian and foreign, estimate that
the new and very heavy rules
will be difficult to apply, by the associations themselves but also by the Malian administrative services, in particular at the level of localities or circles.
They believe that Bamako needs to give itself the means, at the right time, to attack certain well-targeted NGOs.
This is because they operate in areas where the army does not want to see anyone, for example.
“
The risk
, details this humanitarian,
is that they apply the new rules to the letter when they wish, to make things so complicated that the mission has to close.
Without having to expel us, but by paralyzing the activities.
»
Several sources mention the Central African precedent and the “
administrative neutralization
”, according to the formula of one of these sources, imposed “
on the impulse of Russia
” on NGOs.
"
This is also what happened to us in Libya
," notes the same French humanitarian.
“
All of the NGOs in Mali
” concerned
This risk does not only concern French associations or associations supported by France, since it is “
all the NGOs present in Mali which must follow these new instructions
”, points out a researcher who is closely following the file.
On Saturday, December 17,
we learned of the banning of the Swiss NGO Appel de Genève
, not because of the origin of its funding but because of “
illegal activities
”.
At the end of September, an agreement was reached in Geneva between the NGO and the former rebels of the Coalition of Movements for Azawad (CMA), signatories with the Malian government of the 2015 peace agreement, for the respect of the humanitarian law.
A Malian executive from a Malian NGO is more worried about his finances, and therefore about the continuation of some of his programs: "
We have approached other donors, but we do not yet know if they will want to fill the void created by the prohibition made in France.
»
►
To read also:
Mali: the CMA is still waiting for its meeting on neutral ground on the peace agreement
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mali
Assimi Goita
NGO
Humanitarian