The Malian Army has come out against reports of alleged advances by the jihadist group Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) in the Ménaka region, located on the border with Niger, and stressed that it continues to carry out operations in the area, amid the deterioration of the security situation over the past few months.
The director of Public Relations of the Malian Armed Forces, Souleymane Dembélé, has indicated that the military «carry out regular patrols in the town of Ménaka». «If one day we come across iSGS members, we will fight them like other terrorists,» he said.
Likewise, Dembélé stressed that the Armed Forces maintain their dynamic «offensive» against terrorist groups operating in the African country, among which is also the Al Qaeda affiliate in the country, the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (JNIM).
In this way, he assured that since October more than 130 suspects have been «neutralized», while 120 others have been arrested, in operations which have also resulted in the seizure of weapons, ammunition and other military and logistical material.
On the other hand, he formally rejected the accusations about the execution of 50 civilians in the locality of Gueldié by military 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 indicated that, in fact, the Army «neutralized» 15 alleged terrorists during the operation and said that it was carried out on the basis of «precise» information, as reported by the Malian news portal aBamako. «We did not work with Wagner, but with Russian Army cooperators in the framework of a historical bilateral collaboration between the two states», he concluded.
Ménaka was the scene in October of fighting between jihadist groups ISGS and JNIM over their disputes for control of territories in Ménaka, forcing thousands of people to flee to safer areas of the African country.
The army’s statements come amid plans by trade unions in the Malian city of Gao to launch a two-day strike in the face of growing insecurity and after a leading pro-government militia on Monday called on the Tuareg community to take up arms against Islamic State, according to British television network BBC.
For his part, Niger’s President Mohamad Bazoum warned in September that «it is very likely» that ISGS will take control of the city of Ménaka and stressed that «the situation in the Ménaka region has totally degraded after the departure of ‘Barkhane’,» referring to the French military mission in Mali.
Mali, like other Sahel countries, has been registering in recent years an increasing number of jihadist attacks by both Al Qaeda’s affiliate in the region and the Islamic State, which has also increased inter-communal violence and caused the displacement of tens of thousands of people.
