On Saturday, March 2, at noon, Chadian armed forces operating in northern Mali completely destroyed a terrorist base. …The toll included several dead terrorists, including their leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar.A statement from the Chadian armed forces • Announcing the killing of Mokhtar Belmokhtar, an al-Qaeda commander who claimed responsibility for masterminding a lethal hostage situation at an Algerian gas plant in January. Chad’s President Idriss Deby also announced Friday that his forces had killed Adelhamid Abou Zeid, another prominent al-Qaeda commander, in the same area as the attack that killed Belmokhtar. The French, who launched jet strikes on mountain regions in Northern Mali believed to house bases for Islamic militants, have not yet confirmed the deaths of either Belmokhtar or Abou Zeid. source
This is the final phase of the process since it is in that massif [the Ifoghas mountains] that AQIM forces have probably regrouped. Our Chadian friends launched an attack yesterday which was very harsh with significant loss of life. I want to praise what the Chadians are doing.French President Francois Hollande • Speaking on his nation’s military collaboration, along with African forces, against al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, a militant group in Mali now waging a weakening insurgency in the country’s far north. The group had claimed control of broad swaths of northern Mali in 2012, causing the government to request international military help, which Hollande and France (Mali was a French colony until 1960) have provided in the form of 4,000 soldiers deployed. And lest you think there’s a military operation of this sort the United States isn’t involved in, predator drones have been offered to the effort as well, which U.S. officials claim will be used to glean deployment information. source
Mali: Prosecute Soldiers for Abuses
The Malian government should urgently investigate and prosecute soldiers responsible for torture, summary executions, and enforced disappearances of suspected Islamist rebels and alleged collaborators since the fighting in northern Mali resumed in January 2013, Human Rights Watch said today. Mali’s international partners should bolster accountability efforts and civilian protection in the north to help prevent further abuses.
© 2013 Human Rights Watch
Update on the Mali situation. We hope the government takes HRW’s heed.
I just want to say thank you from myself and the people of Mali - Vive la France! I hope Francois Hollande continues to help us and that that we can stay free like this.Timbuktu resident Bena Abdel Kadir • Praising France and President Francois Hollande for approving military engagement in Mali, where the French have been fighting, aided by Malian forces, to uproot an Islamic rebel movement now contained in their lone remaining stronghold, the northeastern city of Kidal. Timbuktu, also in northern Mali, was freed from rebel control by this collaboration, and reports of the scene when Hollande visited suggest a great deal of jubilance towards the French leader, who pledged to keep troops in Mali “as long as necessary,” until state sovereignty has been restored. In other words, an open-ended military engagement, the sort of which has become dubiously familiar to the international community over the last decade. source
It’s truly alarming that this has happened. They torched all the important ancient manuscripts. The ancient books of geography and science. It is the history of Timbuktu, of its people.Timbuktu mayor Ousmane Halle • Expressing great frustration after rebels overtaking the country of Mali set ablaze a library including thousands of ancient documents. While some of the documents have been hidden or moved to protect their contents, others were not so lucky. The Islamist rebels in the country have set off on a major path of destruction, destroying ancient artifacts — including the tombs of ancient saints (such as the tomb of tenth-century saint Sidi Mahmoudou), saints which al-Qaeda officials say conflict with Islam by taking the focus off of Allah. source
News that the attack at In Amenas was apparently led by a Canadian appeared to confirm reports that the region, especially the northern areas of Mali that are now controlled by violent Islamists, has become a magnet for radicals from all over the world.
The Maghreb Emergent website had already quoted one Algerian worker at the gas installation as saying that the kidnappers included Libyans, Egyptian and Syrian radicals.
Bad news continues to emerge from the Algerian gas field attacked by militant fighters last week, an act of terrorism which was allegedly carried out in retaliation for French intervention in Mali. New reports suggest nearly 40 foreign hostages died as a result of the attack, which came to an end after Algerian forces attempted to storm the complex last Thursday. Think the United States should be more involved?
In case you haven’t been keeping a close eye on the Mali conflict, The Washington Post’s Max Fisher has an extremely useful guide to what’s going on. “Mali, after all, has long been an obscure country to most Americans, little-known or -discussed even after its crisis began last year,” he explains. “But now that crisis is becoming more important. Some very bad people have taken over the entire northern half of a very big country. This weekend, the French military sent in troops and made bombing runs to halt the rebels’ advance. More countries are talking about getting involved.”
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Al Qaeda-linked Islamist rebels launched a counteroffensive in Mali on Monday after four days of French air strikes on their northern strongholds, seizing the central town of Diabaly and promising to drag France into a brutal Afghanistan-style war.
France, which has poured hundreds of troops into the capital Bamako in recent days, carried out more air strikes on Monday in the vast desert area seized last year by an Islamist alliance grouping al Qaeda’s north African wing AQIM alongside Mali’s home-grown MUJWA and Ansar Dine militant groups.
“France has opened the gates of hell for all the French,” said Oumar Ould Hamaha, a spokesman for MUJWA, which has imposed strict sharia, Islamic law, in its northern fiefdom of Gao. “She has fallen into a trap which is much more dangerous than Iraq, Afghanistan or Somalia,” he told Europe 1 radio.
The UN is already estimating that approximately 230,000 people have been displaced by the fighting in Mali, and the French government has heightened security in many public locations to prevent a possible retaliatory attacks on France’s civilian population. President Francois Hollande was also sure to specify that France’s only goal in Mali is to support the mission of a 15-member group of West African nations which received United Nations support back in December. source
The US has begun preliminary military preparations for possible action in and around Libya. Drones have reportedly been moved into the sky over Africa and strike forces have been placed on standby—but that’s it for now. The idea behind the preparations is to be ready for a strike in case suspects in the killing of Christopher Stevens are located, but the administration is still debating the long-term wisdom of such a strike. The information was confirmed to AP by three current administration official and a few others. source
The Islamist armed groups have become increasingly repressive as they have tightened their grip over northern Mali. Stonings, amputations, and floggings have become the order of the day in an apparent attempt to force the local population to accept their world view. In imposing their brand of Sharia law, they have also meted out a tragically cruel parody of justice and recruited and armed children as young as 12.
Read more after the break.
“On July 30, the Islamist authorities in Aguelhoc stoned to death a married man and a woman he was not married to for adultery, reportedly in front of 200 people. They also have punished women for failing to adhere to their dress code – which requires women to cover their heads, wear long skirts, and desist from wearing jewelry or perfume – and for having contact with men other than family members.” Scary stuff.
We are making the solemn commitment to re-establish, from today, the Malian constitution of February 25, 1992 and the institutions of the republic.Mali junta leader Amadou Sanogo • Claiming that the military coup he led on March 22 would reinstate the country’s constitution ”with the aim of organizing peaceful, free, open and democratic elections in which we will not take part.” The junta has been threatened with crippling sanctions by the ECOWAS multi-nation body if it does not cede power by midnight Sunday. The West African nation, which is landlocked, could see its borders closed if the junta does not give up power. Sanogo, the U.S.-trained military leader who led the coup, was an obscure entity before the incident.
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