The North Africa Journal – May 31, 2018: Violence in Mali continues to escalate, making dozens of deaths, including among Tuareg and Fulani civilians caught in a conflict that has no solution in sight. Security tracking firm MEA Risk LLC says over the past weekend, some 20 people were killed in the northeast of Mali, near the border with Niger. The attack took place in a rural commune in the Gao Region. AFP says the attackers took advantage of the weekly market to target a security post manned by the Tuareg nationalist group known as the Movement of Azawad Salvation (MSA). The attackers arrived in three vehicles and allegedly spoke Arabic, Fulani and the Touareg Tamasheq language. The raiders killed four MSA guardsmen, and lost eight among their men. Their leader, a suspected Touareg, was also killed in the fight. A local witness said the attackers opened fire on a group of individuals who were resting by a tree, killing five and wounding two. MSA said the death count among this group reached seven.
The crisis in Mali, extending into the rest of the Sahel, has similar features than the Libyan crisis, with so many militias and foreign forces involved. The crisis engulfing the region does not seem to find an end to it. On May 18, some 17 Niger Fulanis were killed when their nomadic camp inside the Niger territory was raided by heavily armed militants who came from Mali on motorcycles. Sources say the raid was a reprisal attack following another attack that took place inside Mali, resulting in the killing of many Malian Touaregs.
The International Red Cross says communal conflicts are not unusual in the region this time of the year. It notes that a severe climate making water access and grazing difficult are some of the causes of the conflicts pitting communities against one another. This year, however, the Red Cross suggests that the intensity of the violence is rather unusually high.
