And on Thursday, violent clashes took place between ISIS and the people of the “Al Tarbiya” area in the “Azawag” region in Niger, leaving dozens dead and wounded among the ISIS ranks, while the people of the area succeeded in recovering 500 heads of camels, which the terrorist organization had robbed.
In response, ISIS burned a passenger bus containing 43 people on the border between Niger and Burkina Faso, leaving deaths and serious injuries.
“Manka” clashes
ISIS attacks spread to northern Mali, and clashes took place between it and the Touareg Imghad Self-Defense Movement and their allies, on March 13, and the latter said in a statement that it repelled the ISIS attack, saved the lives of hundreds of civilians, and lost 15 of its members, while ISIS retreated with dozens of deaths in two trucks.
Moussa Ag Chgatman, leader of the MSA-Member of the IMGAD Touareg Self-Defense Movement, called on the Malian and Nigerian authorities and international partners to expedite the provision of assistance to the affected population.
And it seemed that among the objectives of ISIS’s activities was looting and displacement, not advocating religion, as he says, as it practiced killing, looting and theft and chased the population in “Tadjallet, Insananen, Tamlet, Bakourt, Talia” in the city of “Minka” in northern Mali.
His attacks on March 8 and 9 targeted the areas of the “Takashak” tribe, one of the tribes that reject the existence of extremist groups.
The number of victims of ISIS attacks in “Tamlat”, “Tinsenanen” and “Adarnbukar” reached more than 200 people, most of them civilians, in addition to the missing, and a large number of residents were displaced, in what is believed to be a response to the killing of the leader of ISIS in the Greater Sahara region. Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi, at the hands of French forces, August 17, 2020.
The Azawad Malian journalist, Ibrahim Al-Ansari, told Sky News Arabia that ISIS is actively active on the borders between Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali, and is also expanding inside the Malian soil, and applies its strict provisions.
unconventional weapons
According to the researcher in African affairs at the University of Bamako, Mohamed Ag Ismail, ISIS is taking advantage of the deteriorating relations between Mali and France, to control the largest area of the country, and at the same time it is active on the borders between Niger, Mali and Libya.
Ag Ismail explained to “Sky News Arabia” that the terrorist organization has another weapon, which is to play on tribal differences between the Tuareg and Arabs on the one hand, and the Fulani shepherds in the border region with Niger on the one hand, to establish its presence there.
But the researcher expects that it will be difficult to form an emirate for ISIS in the region; Because the forces of the “Salvation of Azawad” movement and the forces of General Hajj “Agh Gamou” are stationed there, and they are known for their military capabilities, and their rejection of the presence of these intruders.
Danger to Libya
Sources from the “Tuareg Libya” warned of the extension of ISIS attacks to Libya if it took control of the state of Manka in northeastern Mali.
The sources said that Libya is separated from the city only by the vast Sahara, where there are no military concentrations for the Malian army, and ISIS attacks may push a new wave of asylum towards southern Libya.
According to a report by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies (based in Washington) in January, Mali has witnessed 935 terrorist operations since 2017, including 318 since January 2021, and terrorists have taken hostages from Mali and neighboring countries for ransom, which is a source of financing, according to the Institute for Security Studies (ISS).
#attack #northern #Mali #Niger #ISIS #Emirate #Minka