Several thousand residents of Talataye are trying to reach the big cities of northern Mali. These displaced fled the fighting which opposed, on Tuesday, September 6, the jihadists of the EIGS, the Sahelian branch of the Islamic State group, and their rivals from the Jnim, linked to al-Qaeda. Nationals of Talataye and local armed groups are organizing to help the displaced.
Talataye is now devastated and completely emptied of its population. The ISGS jihadists left behind them looted and burned buildings and the corpses of 42 civilians. Those who had no time to flee…
According to numerous local sources – elected officials and nationals of Talataye, armed groups, security and humanitarian sources –, several thousand inhabitants of Talataye who had fled the fighting, most often on foot, always waiting for help. They vegetate in makeshift camps, scattered within a radius of 20 to 30 kilometers around the city.
” The first few days, they had nothing to eat. But thanks to contributions and the mobilization of nationals and people of good will, they were able to receive food. But the urgency is to get them out of there », explains an elected official from Talataye.
“Everyone wants to take shelter”
Talataye and the surrounding camps usually have around 10,000 inhabitants, according to this local elected official. Ten days after the fighting, several thousand of them are still trying to reach the towns of Gao, about 150 kilometers to the west, or Kidal, more than 200 km to the north. To a lesser extent, some head for the town of Ménaka or Algeria.
Other localities in the area that have not yet suffered any attack are also beginning to empty of their inhabitants: “They are afraid and follow the same dynamic, everyone wants to take shelter “Explains an executive of the MSA (Movement for the Salvation of Azawad), a local armed group member of the pro-Bamako Platform, signatory of the 2015 peace agreement.
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For ten days, it is mainly this armed group which organizes the transport of displaced people. The MSA, very established in this sector and throughout the Ménaka region, had taken part in the fighting against the EIGS in Talataye in an attempt to protect the populations.
Some local elements of the CMA (Coordination des Mouvements de l’Azawad, ex-independence rebels) are also mobilized, on their own initiative, according to a spokesperson for the CMA who specifies that no action at the level of the movement was decided.
” We are alone ”
” We have already organized two convoys to Gao “Says an MSA executive. ” We are also transporting displaced people further north of the city, on the road to Kidal, to areas where they can graze their animals. But it’s all hard to organize, and we’re alone “, deplores this source who also mentions the risk that the fighters of the EIGS will come back to attack the populations still waiting. ” Get them to safety fast. “, he concludes.
The Minusma, already mobilized in Ménaka for the protection of the city and the reception of the displaced people who have flocked in recent months, dispatched human rights investigators to Gao. They have already begun to collect testimonies from victims, according to information from a local civilian source. Requested by RFI on the device envisaged for the displaced persons of Talataye, the Minusma did not follow up.
Several hundred people displaced from Talataye – more than 2,000, according to an unchecked estimate – have in any case already arrived in Gao. ” They settled on an unoccupied plot in the city “, explains a representative of the Association of women from Talataye in Gao, involved in their care.
” But it’s very difficult, because often they couldn’t even take their tents with them. So they make some with what they find or they put themselves under the trees. Above all, continues this source, they don’t have a water point, it’s very difficult. This native of Talataye is also worried, during this wintering period, about several untreated cases of malaria.
“The government did nothing”
” We need the help of the Malian government, which has done nothing so far, declares this source which specifies that teams of the UNHCR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) and the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) began to identify this Wednesday the number of displaced persons. She hopes that concrete help can quickly be brought to them.
” We have indeed launched an assessment mission in the city of Gao and its outskirtsconfirms the headquarters of the ICRC in Bamako. We assess the needs for water, food and protection, then we will try to meet the maximum of our possibilities. At the time of publication of this article, the UNHCR confirmed that it was mobilized, but was unable to provide details.
In the surroundings of Talataye, and more generally in this north-eastern part of Mali which extends to the area of the three borders (Mali-Niger-Burkina), new fighting is to be expected. The Sahelian branch of the Islamic State group intends to consolidate its ascendancy in the area, acquired over the past six months. And the Jnim seeks to strengthen itself to face these repeated attacks.
For its part, the MSA remains mobilized to defend the civilian population. And other armed groups, particularly within the CMA, no longer rule out participating in the next fighting. Internal consultations are underway in Kidal to determine the involvement of these groups in future clashes.
More than 900 civilians massacred
The MSA, for more than six months on the front line against the EIGS, seeks the support of the national army to protect the populations. The general staff of the armies of Mali indicated having carried out last Tuesday a flight of ” offensive reconnaissance in the area, but no man has been deployed on the ground, either at the time of the fighting or since then, to protect or assist the displaced.
Since the start of the EIGS offensive in north-eastern Mali last March, more than 900 civilians have been massacred: 145 in Tamalat, 213 in Anderamboukane, 310 in Inekar… Appalling tolls, collected from local communities and compiled by independent Malian journalist Walid Ag Menani. These figures come to clarify and weigh down the assessments provided so far by various local and international sources, which already reported several hundred deaths.
And for the past few hours, a voice message posted on social networks has aroused emotion and fear. It was recorded by El Hadj Ag Gamou, figure of the Tuareg Imghad community, general of the Malian army and head of the military branch of the Gatia, another local armed group signatory to the peace agreement.
In this message, General Gamou asks civilians in the area to leave their camps and move closer to the big cities to seek shelter. Words intended to save lives, but which surprised in the mouth of a general yet prowled in difficult fights. A speech that says a lot about the current balance of power on the ground.