Nov. 8 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Malian Army has come forward with information about alleged advances by the Islamic State jihadist group in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) in the Ménaka region, located on the border with Niger, and has stressed that it continues to carry out operations in the area, amid the deteriorating security situation in recent months.
The director of Public Relations of the Malian Armed Forces, Souleymane Dembélé, has indicated that the military “carry out regular patrols in the city of Ménaka”. “If one day we come across members of iSGS, we will fight them like all other terrorists,” he said.
Likewise, Dembélé has emphasized that the Armed Forces maintain their “offensive” dynamics against the terrorist groups operating in the African country, which also includes the Al Qaeda affiliate in the country, the Islam Support Group and the Muslims (JNIM).
In this way, it has ensured that since October more than 130 suspects have been “neutralized”, while another 120 have been arrested, in operations that have also resulted in the seizure of weapons, ammunition and other military material and logistic.
On the other hand, it has formally rejected the accusations about the execution of 50 civilians in the town of Gueldié by soldiers and mercenaries of the Wagner Group, founded by an oligarch close to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and which supports Bamako in its fight against terrorist groups.
Dembélé has indicated that, in fact, the Army “neutralized” 15 suspected terrorists during the operation and has stated that it was carried out through “precise” information, as reported by the Malian news portal aBamako. “We do not work with Wagner, but with cooperators of the Russian Army within the framework of a historic bilateral collaboration between the two states,” he has settled.
Ménaka was the scene in October of some fighting between the jihadist groups ISGS and JNIM over their disputes over control of territories in Ménaka, which forced thousands of people to flee to safer areas of the African country.
The Army’s statements come amid plans by unions in the Malian city of Gao to launch a two-day strike in the face of growing insecurity and after a prominent pro-government militia called on the Tuareg community on Monday to rise up. in arms against Islamic State, according to the British television network BBC.
For his part, the president of Niger, Mohamad Bazoum, warned in September that “it is very likely” that ISGS would take control of the city of Ménaka and stressed that “the situation in the Ménaka region has totally deteriorated after the departure of ‘Barkhane'”, referring to the French military mission in Mali.
Mali, like other countries in the Sahel, has been registering in recent years a growing number of jihadist attacks carried out by both the Al Qaeda affiliate in the region and the Islamic State, which has also increased inter-community violence and caused the displacement of tens of thousands of people.
