The Sahelian branch of the Islamic State group has been on the offensive since early March around the town of Anderamboukane, Ménaka region, in the northeast of the country. Two armed groups signatories to the peace agreement, the MSA and the Gatia, had been fighting alone for three months. But this weekend, the Malian army finally joined them to take over on Saturday, and lose control of Anderamboukane on Sunday.
The fighting lasted several hours this Sunday, in Anderamboukane and Tadjalalt, about twenty kilometers further west, an EIGS base. There were several combat sequences, ambushes, after which the MSA, the Gatia and the Fama finally withdrew. No reliable and cross-checked report is available, but the various military and security sources speak of several dozen dead and missing on both sides. The MSA and the Gatia indicate that the wounded were evacuated and taken care of in the town of Ménaka.
Ten days ago, the jihadists of the EIGS had carried out a new series of attacks, mobilizing several hundred fighters. These attacks had emptied several towns in the Ménaka region of their population. Anderamboukane, about 20,000 inhabitants in normal times, had suffered significant destruction and its entire population had to flee.
The Malian army, for three months, let the MSA and the Gatia fight alone to defend the inhabitants and the territory. The Fama are therefore finally engaged, since Saturday, in this theater. Asked by RFI, the Malian army did not respond. According to several military and security sources, the Russian auxiliaries of the Fama would not be present, for the moment in any case.
Denying rumors that they were injured in combat, General El Hadj Ag Gamou, close to the Gatia and who commands the GTIA8 of the Malian army, and Moussa Ag Acharatoumane, who commands the MSA, published a photo of them on a mat, in the middle of the desert, satellite phone in hand and armed man by their side. They were back in Ménaka on Sunday evening.
No intervention from Barkhane
The French Barkhane force still has a base in Ménaka, but it does not intervene in these battles. ” We were not asked “Explains a source at the general staff, who recalls that Bamako denounced the defense agreements that bound the two countries and that there is no longer any military cooperation. Under these conditions: no support from Barkhane, neither for intelligence nor for air strikes. The French have also begun their disengagement, they will have definitively left Ménaka ” in a few weeks “.
The Minusma, it was requested by the Malian army: the blue helmets evacuated this Sunday four soldiers wounded in combat. The Minusma had already announced, last week, an intensification of its patrols in and around the town of Ménaka. According to UN sources, combat helicopters are being redeployed to Ménaka for the protection of civilians.
Since the beginning of March, the EIGS has killed at least 264 civilians in the Ménaka region, according to a UN count. Probably much more, according to estimates from local civilian and security sources. The United Nations also counts more than 23,000 displaced people on the Malian and Nigerien sides of the border since the beginning of March.
A silent march was organized this morning in Ménaka, by civil society, to ask that the situation be made a priority by the Malian State and to seek help from the international community.