Several thousand Malian Tuaregs who had found refuge near Tinzaouatène, in Algeria, were forced to return to the Malian side of the border on Monday. This expulsion does not concern all the Malian Tuaregs who have found refuge in Algeria in recent years: for a little over a year, for those who fled the arrival of the Malian army and its Wagner auxiliaries in the region of Kidal, for more than two years for those who had fled the violence of the Islamic State in the Ménaka region – these are only the most recent waves. The expulsion implemented Monday concerns a specific site.
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They received an ultimatum from Algerian forces on Sunday: if they did not leave, their belongings would be burned. According to several local, security, civil and humanitarian sources, these are refugee families to the east of the Algerian part of the town of Tinzaouatène who had to rush across the wadi separating them from Malian territory on Monday. On foot, in the middle of the desert, with women and children, lugging clothes and blankets as best they could.
Fights took place on a site that the Algerian authorities suspected of harboring various trafficking activities, particularly arms trafficking.
Targeted measure
This is therefore not a generalized expulsion but a targeted measure, even if all the families living on this site have paid the price. Of the Tuaregsessentially Daoussak, who had fled the bloody offensive launched in March 2022 by the Islamic State group in the Ménaka region, and which had left nearly a thousand dead in one year, according to estimates from local communities.
A humanitarian source notes that tens of thousands of Tuaregs from Mali are still present in Algeria welcomed, or rather tolerated since they do not have refugee status and cannot submit asylum applications. The Algerian authorities are trying to avoid groupings and no “ refugee camp » was opened in the country for Malians who came to seek protection, unlike the case of M’Bera in Mauritania For example.
At the lowest
Relations between Mali and Algeria are at their lowest, with the Malian transitional authorities accusing Algiers of supporting the “ terrorists » acting in Mali. Requested by RFI, the Algerian embassy in Mali did not react at the time of publication of this article.
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