#Malian army

[self-loving-vampire]

Had a fun game of Age of Empires 2 with my sisters.

It all started with a very unfortunate accident. My little sister @thirteen-jades had a gate issue due to her defending units keeping it open long enough for a big enemy army to come through.

This created a crisis, since her army was not well prepared for such an early push, especially with the Vikings coming to reinforce the Malians with knights.

My sisters were on the flanks, with me at the back. Shortly after Jade's crisis @cyberbun also got attacked while her own army was away to protect Jade.

However, it was not in vain. Her intervention (serjeants building a donjon by Jade's gate and maintaining a trickle of production there) helped cut off enemy reinforcements and help Jade clean up and stabilize.

While this was happening, I used the fact that I was the "pocket player" at the back of the team plus the fact that I rolled Turks after choosing random civ to just boom as hard as possible while reinforcing them with light cavalry.

These reinforcements helped save Jade from another big ram and infantry push. The enemies just didn't stop coming there. Once I had a castle up, I started producing janissaries to protect Jade's base and help it stabilize.

However, Lottie's base was pretty much lost. She contemplated resigning, but was persuaded to retreat to my base instead and rebuild there.

My economy was muscular enough at this point that I could more than afford giving her some additional resources to get her set up. Her new position lacked resources other than wood and farms for food, but with a market and some trade with Jade things can get better from there.

The biggest advantage is that it's a very safe position due to it being a closed map. Enemies would have to either chop through the forest or go through me to get to her survivors.

On the other side of the map, I assembled a big enough force of hussars, janissaries, and bombard cannons to start pushing the Malians away from Jade's base and even start attacking the Vikings as well, beating them both in a 2v1.

Given time to breathe, my sisters rallied and launched a 2v1 of their own against the Dravidians who destroyed Lottie's base.

I finished offthe Vikings shortly after, with Dravidians following behind them.

And the result was a total sister victory from the underdog position. Glad we didn't give up when overrun.

[awesome-casuallyfamouscollector]

Destroyed Russian mercenary PMC Wagner's armored vehicle, Mali, July 2024. Source: Cloooud

P.S. Very interesting news are coming from Mali: Russian terrorists from PMC Wagner and their allies from the Malian army attempted to take the city of Tinzahuatin, but were totally annihilated. The Mi-24 attack helicopter covering the Russian mercenaries was quickly and professionally shot down, the Wagnerian armored vehicles were blown up with mines and FPV drones; at least 80 mercenaries and Malian army soldiers were destroyed very quickly and several were captured. Among the fallen are the administrator of the well-known Russian Telegram channel Gray Zone (500k subscribers) and one of his commanders PMC Wagner Anton «Lotus» Yelizarov. He commanded the Russian troops advancing in the Bakhmut direction. Awarded "Hero of Russia"...!

I don't believe in coincidences! It seems that Russian war criminals and supporters of Putler, who have committed war crimes in Ukraine, Syria and elsewhere, will also be punished in Africa...!!!

[mariacallous]

Little did wannabe warlord and catering magnate Yevgeny Prigozhin realize his short-lived mutiny would result in his demise, leaving behind a legacy—and admirers—far beyond Russia’s borders, particularly in China, where Prigozhin has become a cult figure on closely monitored social media.

Prigozhin’s following among top military bloggers on Weibo, one of the largest social media platforms in China, mirrors that in Russia. From Moscow to Beijing, Prigozhin is seen as the embodiment of a more vigorous and genuine patriotism, a man who prioritized the motherland’s interests over his own life. He is celebrated as a man of the people, despite the wealth he generated from the Wagner Group’s operations.

His blunt criticism of Russia’s top military leaders bolstered his image as a truth-teller willing to risk his life. This resonated in China, where a purge of top military officials in the People’s Liberation Army is underway due to accusations of corruption and of betraying the ideals of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Amid rising tension between Beijing and Washington, many Chinese military bloggers suspect U.S. involvement in Prigozhin’s death, despite there being no evidence of this. A poll on Weibo, limited to 1,000 respondents, showed a majority asserting that the United States orchestrated Prigozhin’s plane crash to incite civil war in Russia. A smaller number of voters pointed the finger at Russian President Vladimir Putin, stating that allowing Prigozhin to walk away unpunished could set a dangerous precedent.

Affection for the Wagner Group is seen by the CCP as a double-edged sword in online Chinese debate. On the one hand, it illustrates the need for empowered Chinese private security companies that protect Chinese citizens and infrastructure abroad. On the other hand, it raises the specter of heavily armed security professionals pursuing a domestic political agenda.

China’s leading security pundits—academics, former military officials, and amateur bloggers—are enamored by the Wagner Group’s bravado and attitude of getting things done no matter what. They argue that the current Chinese approach to the protection of Chinese interests overseas is passive and advocate for more assertive, Wagner-style tactics. The setbacks in counterterrorism operations in Mozambique and the recent slaughter of Wagner operators by Malian Tuareg rebels have largely gone unnoticed. Some bloggers, with several million followers each, see Wagner as the model for Chinese private security companies protecting Belt and Road projects and infrastructure across the globe in high-risk areas.

From Asia to Africa, Chinese overseas workers are facing rising threats, with kidnappings and deaths becoming more frequent. In March 2023, nine Chinese nationals were killed when gunmen attacked a mine in the Central African Republic. Just a year later, in March 2024, five Chinese engineers were killed in a suicide bombing in Pakistan, and another such attack occurred this month, leading Beijing to call for more security. Moreover, Chinese security bloggers’ praise of Prigozhin and his mercenaries as liberators who were a more effective fighting force than the Russian military in Ukraine amounts to a veiled stab at top managers of China’s military-industrial complex, who were fired for accepting bribes and producing low-quality military equipment.

Therefore, it appears likely that China’s strict social media filtering allows such commentary intentionally, as it aligns with the government’s agenda. However, the boundaries of acceptable online discourse can shift suddenly, posing a risk for bloggers if Beijing’s stance on Wagner or the military changes abruptly.

Registered by Weibo with their government-issued IDs and legally responsible for the blogs, the pundits and analysts reflect one strand of government thinking. China’s Great Firewall keeps references to Wagner focused on Ukraine, but the group’s activities in Africa and the Middle East are also mentioned.

Online Chinese discussion frames Wagner’s African operations as support for decolonization and the countering of the West’s neocolonial approach and influence on the continent—basically copy-pasting Russian rhetoric. One commentator, blaming France for turmoil in Mali, took the West to task by asserting that Wagner combats “terrorism and separatism and embodies humanism.” Another microblogger suggested that China would be better off having a Blackwater equivalent rather than a Wagner Group one because “reputation is more important than anything else” and Chinese nationals would not be allowed to perpetrate the kinds of atrocities attributed to the Russian group.

From a Western perspective, this situation may seem perplexing because Blackwater, following the Nisour Square massacre in Iraq, had a notoriously terrible reputation. However, in China, Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, partnered with the state-owned financial giant CITIC to establish the security company Frontier Services Group in Hong Kong. As a result, the widespread global outrage and discussions surrounding Blackwater employees’ killing of Iraqi civilians never reached the broader Chinese public.

The online discussions highlight the fork in the road in which China has to determine the future trajectory of its private security companies. Influential military bloggers with millions of followers see Wagner as a model for the Chinese military and private security industry. They argue that Beijing must develop more assertive companies capable of protecting overseas Chinese nationals and investments. At the same time, there is concern that private security personnel could become an armed, uncontrollable force when they return from overseas service.

This dichotomy between ambition and fear is reflected in the portrayal of Prigozhin as a cult figure in online debates. A nuanced reading reveals Chinese netizens’ concerns about and interests in the Russia-Ukraine war, highlighting several peculiarities. Notably, Prigozhin is seen in China more as a successful CEO than as a wannabe warlord or military strategist, as is often the case elsewhere.

The Chinese public tends to prefer a businesslike approach to the militarization of security functions. In China, rising from humble beginnings to become a billionaire, despite the CCP’s call for moderation, is often viewed as a sign of tactical acumen and shrewdness. Unlike in Russia—where bloggers focus on debating Prigozhin’s military strategies—in China, Prigozhin’s business success remains a key attraction for his followers.

Supporters of the Wagner model still perpetuate the group’s aura of invincibility. One blogger recalled Wagner rescuing Chinese miners in the Central African Republic in July 2023 at the request of the Chinese Embassy. The group found the miners in a forest and “provided them with food, shelter, and security protection” before escorting them to the capital. Chinese public opinion largely matches the view that is prevalent in the swath of land stretching from the Central African Republic to Niger, inundated by Russian propaganda and disinformation that makes no mention of mass slaughters and gender-based violence, and perceives Wagner mercenaries as liberators rather than oppressors.

In life, Prigozhin served Putin by keeping the military’s top brass in check. In death, the Prigozhin myth in Russia is a useful catalyst that directs anger at the military instead of the president and inspires future Wagner recruits. In China, even among Wagner’s biggest boosters, Putin’s description of Prigozhin as a “talented person” who “made serious mistakes in life” remains a warning for Chinese private security entrepreneurs not to cross the party’s red line.

Years ago, a similar debate erupted on Weibo, calling for reforms in China’s private security sector, inspired by the rise of Blackwater. These reforms never took shape—and they are unlikely to materialize now as envisioned by Wagner fans. Even with Wagner’s perceived success, the CCP guards its monopoly on force tightly, with the Maoist principle that the party must control the gun still firmly in place.

The myth of Prigozhin, even within China’s strict narrative control, serves a dual purpose: It fuels ambitions for a stronger, tightly regulated Chinese private security sector while also acting as a cautionary tale about the dangers of contractors turning on their own leaders.

[odinsblog]

MALIAN SOLDIERS AND foreign fighters, identified as members of the Russia-linked Wagner Group, have committed extrajudicial executions and forced disappearances of dozens of civilians in central Mali since December 2022, according to a new Human Rights Watch report shared with The Intercept. Researchers found that the longtime U.S.-backed Malian military also tortured detainees in an army camp and destroyed and looted civilian property as part of its protracted campaign against militant Islamists.

The Malian soldiers committed the atrocities in four villages in the center of the country, according to telephone interviews with 40 people knowledgeable about the abuses, half of them witnesses to the violence. Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that foreign, non-French-speaking armed men whom they described as “white,” “Russians,” or “Wagner” participated in most of the attacks.

In December 2021, the Malian junta reportedly authorized the deployment of Wagner mercenary forces to fight Islamist militants after close to two decades of failed Western-backed counterterrorism campaigns in exchange for almost $11 million per month and access to gold and uranium mines. Since then, Wagner — a paramilitary group led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former hot dog vender turned warlord — has been implicated in hundreds of human rights abuses alongside the country’s military, including a 2022 massacre that killed 500 civilians.

Human Rights Watch’s new findings add to the grim toll.

“We found compelling evidence that the Malian army and allied foreign fighters linked to the Wagner group have committed serious abuses, including killings, enforced disappearances and looting, against civilians during counter-insurgency operations in central Mali with complete impunity,” Ilaria Allegrozzi, the senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch, told The Intercept. “The failure of the Malian authorities to identify and prosecute those responsible will most likely only fuel further violence and crimes.”

(continue reading)

[stele3]

[sparksinthenight]

The army of Mali, the Wagner Group allied with the army, and armed fundamentalists have all killed many civilians, committed war crimes, and caused the Malian people to live in fear.

[lightdancer1]

Mali and the Ukraine War have a very obvious intersection:

In the case of the Mali War, however, the long shadow of the Russian state and the Ukraine War rear their ugly heads, as the same Wagner group of Nazis that were happily used by Russia to ensure Ukraine's 'deNazification' saw Russian Nazis raping, pillaging, and butchering their way across Ukraine were doing it in Mali for a long time before and are back to doing it again. Wagner is employed here by the Malian government to stay in power, in a good illustration of why dictators are bastards all over, regardless of continent or skin color, and why people who sincerely buy Russians object to Nazis at any real level should be parted from money post-haste and preferably into my pocket, at that.

[beardedmrbean]

Two people have been killed and five others injured after shells were fired on the historic northern Malian city of Timbuktu, the army says.

The military blamed what it called "terrorists" for the shelling.

Timbuktu, a UN-designated World Heritage Site, has been under siege in recent weeks by jihadists, leading to acute food shortages.

Back in 2012, it was captured by Islamist and Tuareg fighters, who were eventually ousted by French forces.

However, the jihadists continued to stage attacks from their bases further north in the Sahara Desert.

The insurgency was the main reason Mali's military seized power in 2020, accusing the civilian government of failing to provide security.

It pledged to end the militant attacks but in recent months it appears they have been on the increase.

In one of the bloodiest incidents, 49 people died when a river boat in the north-east of the country was ambushed a fortnight ago.

Inside northern Mali amid the Islamist insurgency

Why UN peacekeepers are being told to leave Mali

Africa Live: Updates on this and other stories from the continent

The UN peacekeeping force, which has been in the country since 2013, is pulling out at the request of the military government.

Last year, France withdrew its forces as the authorities brought in mercenaries from Russia's Wagner group.

Thursday's attack on Timbuktu, a seat of Islamic learning home to tens of thousands of ancient manuscripts, caused panic among residents, local media report.

The city's inhabitants have endured faced shortages of food, petrol and medicine since the beginning of August, when jihadists warned trucks from neighbouring regions not to enter the city.

This has led to a sharp increase in the price of those goods which are still available.

As well as reporting Thursday's shelling of Timbuktu, the army said it had foiled an attack 240km (150 miles) south-west in Léré town, killing five militants.

On Sunday, five soldiers were killed after two military camps were raided by ethnic Tuareg rebels.

An alliance of Tuareg groups that re-launched a rebellion last month said it had captured two bases from the Malian army in Sunday's fighting.

The Tuareg rebels, who want independence for northern Mali, are opposed to the army taking control of bases vacated by departing UN troops in the area. They also accuse the junta of reneging on the 2015 Algiers peace deal that ended their previous rebellion.

The Islamist insurgents have spread from northern Mali and also operate in neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso.

The insecurity has led the army in all three countries to seize power but the jihadist insurgency has continued.

[ausetkmt]

Mali rejects UN report on alleged execution of 500 villagers by troops

May 14, 20237:44 AM EDT

Mali rejects UN report on alleged execution of 500 villagers by troops

BAMAKO, May 14 (Reuters) - Mali's interim military government has rejected a United Nations human rights office report on the alleged execution of at least 500 people by Malian soldiers and unidentified foreign fighters during an operation last year.

The ruling junta was responding to a report released on Friday after a months-long investigation into what rights groups described as the worst atrocity in a 10-year conflict between Islamist groups and the army.

[yesfesnews]

Bamako Writes to UN Security Council Following Destruction of Malian Drone by Algerian Army, Calls it Deliberate Hostile Act

New York – The Republic of Mali has contacted the United Nations Security Council, through its Permanent Mission to the organization, regarding the incident involving the destruction of a drone belonging to its Armed and Security Forces. According to the letter dated April 7, 2025, bearing the reference N° 25-195-MPM/YHS-mk, the Transitional Government of Mali strongly condemns the destruction of…

[mariacallous]

WARNING: This report contains references to killings and graphic violence that some readers might find distressing.

Videos circulating online show the moment militants killed more than 100 unarmed residents digging defensive trenches in Barsalogho, Burkina Faso, last month. 

Footage shows those killed lying in trenches dug to protect their town. Satellite images also reveal that extensive new trenches were dug around Barsalogho immediately after the massacre.

According to Collectif Justice Pour Barsalogho (CJB), a collective formed by residents in the aftermath of the attack, civilians were forced by the Burkinabè army to dig the trenches on Saturday morning, August 24, when they came under attack from Al Qaeda-affiliated Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM). Bellingcat was not able to independently verify this claim. 

The CJB described the army’s inability to prevent the massacre as a “bitter failure.” The videos filmed by JNIM show militants shooting at unarmed people, and dozens of bodies scattered along the trenches. JNIM claimed it killed 300 people affiliated with the Burkinabè military. The exact number of people killed and wounded has still not been confirmed by the government, with early reports suggesting hundreds were killed. Military officials met with some victims in nearby Kaya after the attack, but neither the government nor the military has been forthcoming about events. More than a week after the massacre, the country’s president Ibrahim Traoré, has yet to release an official statement about the attack, although the Presidential Office released a report on Wednesday outlining that Malian and Nigérien officials had expressed solidarity with the victims. Bellingcat geolocated footage filmed by JNIM militants during the attack and analysed satellite imagery showing the growth of the trenches around the town.

[xtruss]

Whiskey-Drinking Rocker Transforms Into West Africa’s Most Dangerous al Qaeda Leader

A Militant Leader From Mali Championed a Rock and and Helped Write a Hit Song Before Leading an Islamist Army That Killed Tens of Thousands

A 1990 Photo of Iyad Ag Ghali in Nothern Mali. Raymon Depardon/Magnum Photo

— By Benoit Faucon, Michael M. Phillips | March 31, 2025

Back in the day, Iyad ag Ghali wrote lyrics for a flamboyant blues-rock band from the heart of the Sahara. He jammed with the guys in the group, pounding out the beat on metal jerrycans, and frequented West African nightclubs.

The group, Tinariwen, went on to tour the world, win a Grammy and play with the likes of Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant and U2’s Bono.

Ag Ghali went on to become the leader of one of the most dangerous al Qaeda franchises in the world, banning music in a swath of West Africa the size of Montana and commanding an army of extremists responsible for tens of thousands of deaths. Ag Ghali’s gunmen even ambushed Tinariwen band members and abducted the guitar player.

“I could not believe it,” said the band’s former manager, Manny Ansar, who went clubbing with ag Ghali in Mali’s capital, Bamako, 30 years ago. “It was a huge shock when I saw footage of him walking over corpses.”

Ag Ghali has turned West Africa into the primary battlefield where the West and local governments have clashed with Islamist extremists. His 6,000 fighters have rampaged through villages and battled French soldiers, American Green Berets and Russian mercenaries.

Attacks By AQIM/JNIM And Affiliates

Source: Armed Conflict Location and Event Data via Africa Center for Strategic Studies. Emma Brown/WSJ

It is a fight the 70 or so year-old ag Ghali is winning. His militants have become so powerful that there is a risk that Mali, his home country, or neighboring Burkina Faso could become the world’s first nation ruled by al Qaeda.

Ag Ghali’s journey from World Music promoter to Islamist warlord followed as unlikely a trajectory as his friends’ rise from fireside jam sessions to the global stage.

This account of his transformation draws on interviews with former friends, Tuareg rebels, Tinariwen band members and managers and government officials, as well as U.N. reports, U.S. diplomatic communications and contemporaneous photos.

Desert Boys

As a young man, ag Ghali was a Tuareg first and a Muslim second.

The Tuareg, a Berber ethnic group, have been romanticized in the West for their indigo garb and nomadic lifestyle, wandering the Sahara with their camels, goats and sheep, across what is now Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Algeria and Libya. They resisted almost 70 years of colonial domination by France. After Mali gained independence in 1960, they staged a failed rebellion against the new government.

Ag Ghali was nine years old when his father, prominent among Tuareg families, was killed in the uprising. As he grew up, ag Ghali joined a legion of Tuareg volunteers, under the patronage of Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi, seeking independence from Mali.

A 1992 Photo of Ibrahim ag Alhabib Playing Guitar in Mali. Photo: Tinariwen

Gadhafi used the Tuareg to further his own geopolitical ambitions, dispatching ag Ghali and others to fight the Israelis in Lebanon and the French in Chad.

In the 1980s, Gadhafi asked ag Ghali to supervise Tuareg recruits at a camp near Tripoli, Libya. Among the volunteers were musicians, including Ibrahim ag Alhabib, whose father, like ag Ghali’s, had been killed in the 1960s Mali rebellion.

As a boy, ag Alhabib had been captivated by a guitar-strumming cowboy in a Western screened at a makeshift desert cinema. He fashioned his first guitar out of an oil can, stick and bicycle-brake cable. As he mastered the instrument, ag Alhabib absorbed the music of Elvis, James Brown, Malian star Ali Farka Touré and Arab pop musicians. Around the campfire at night, ag Alhabib and other Tuareg musicians forged their own desert-blues sound.

Ag Ghali saw music as a way to rally support for Tuareg independence. He helped supply ag Alhabib and the musicians with electric guitars and amplifiers, a warehouse for rehearsals and a concrete stage to perform, said Philippe Brix, the band’s second manager.

Ag Ghali crafted lyrics for a song called “Bismillah,” Arabic for “In the Name of God.”

In the name of God, we started the revolution in the company of my brothers.

To drive out the looters and trample the enemies,

We will climb the mountains to escape misery.

Ag Ghali “understood the power of guitar music as a communication tool,” said Brix. “It was his masterstroke.” The musicians named their band Kel Tinariwen, the Desert Boys.

Pierre Boilley, a Tuareg-focused academic, said he hosted ag Ghali at his Paris apartment in 1989, where his guest spent evenings sipping whiskey and plotting a Tuareg uprising.

Ag Ghali eventually soured on Gadhafi, who put his own agenda ahead of Tuareg independence. “Gadhafi had promised for years to help,” Ansar recalled ag Ghali saying. “But he kept on sending us to fight other wars.”

In June 1990, ag Ghali and his fighters left Libya and slipped into Mali. They raided military posts during the day and sang fireside at night.

Bootleg cassettes of “Bismillah” passed hand to hand in Malian settlements, and the song became an anthem of the Tuareg liberation movement. It was ag Ghali’s song, said Abdallah ag Alhousseyni, a guitarist in the group since its early days.

“One can say Tinariwen was behind the uprising,” the band’s bass player, Eyadou ag Leche, later told the French newspaper Le Monde.

After initial battlefield wins, ag Ghali negotiated a 1991 peace that led to increased Tuareg autonomy from Malian authorities.

It was the start of a two-decade alliance between ag Ghali and the Bamako government.

City Life

The fighting over, Malian President Moussa Traoré asked Ansar, a Tuareg and popular man-about-town in Bamako, to host ag Ghali for a dinner.

Ansar archived Tuareg music as a hobby, and he hit it off with ag Ghali, who thought Tinariwen needed a manager. The following year, ag Ghali invited Ansar to the Algerian Sahara and introduced him to band members, who were playing guitar on a carpet in the shade of a tree.

“I am entrusting this band to you,” Ansar recalled ag Ghali saying.

Traoré was overthrown by the military in 1991, in response to the killing of pro-democracy protesters. The new president, Alpha Konaré, hoping to keep a lid on the restive Tuaregs, gave ag Ghali a spacious villa in Bamako.

Soldiers involved in the 1991 putsch led by Malian Lt. Col. Amadou Toumani Touré against President Moussa Traoré. Both leaders cultivated ties with Iyad ag Ghali before he launched an Islamist insurgency against the government two decades later. Photo: Francois Rojon/AFP/Getty Images

Ag Ghali invited Tinariwen’s founder to live in the house. The band stayed up late rehearsing and Ag Ghali sang along, keeping the beat on a water can.

President Konaré asked ag Ghali to join him on official trips to the United Arab Emirates, Algeria and elsewhere. The desert rebel began wearing a Rolex watch, Weston loafers and Smalto suits, gifts from their international hosts, Ansar said.

Ag Ghali and Ansar cranked Bob Marley songs as they drove to nightclubs, where Ag Ghali chain-smoked Marlboros, but drank only orange juice, Ansar said.

In 1999, a group of conservative Pakistani preachers arrived in ag Ghali’s hometown of Kidal, in northern Mali, and his life changed.

Ditch The Rolex

The Pakistanis, bearded and dressed in white, marched through Kidal, exhorting residents to strictly follow the tenets of Islam. Some Tuareg women booed them.

Ag Ghali, though, was intrigued and invited the Pakistanis to his home. Over the following months, he spent more time praying and reading the Quran. He grew a beard and began wearing the same white garb as the preachers.

“I’m ditching my Rolex and my shoes,” Ansar recalled ag Ghali saying. “I can’t wear them anymore.”

Ag Ghali’s growing attraction to an extreme version of Islam and his love of Tuareg music coexisted peacefully for a while. In 1999, the same year the Pakistani preachers came to town, he urged Ansar to organize concerts of Tuareg music, which eventually morphed into the Festival in the Desert.

Among those who attended the first festival in 2001 was U.S. Ambassador to Mali Michael Ranneberger. He was mesmerized by the swaying Tuareg dancers and starry nights in camel-skin tents, according to his written recollections.

Later that year, “Bismillah” appeared on Tinariwen’s first commercially released album. Others are credited for the song, but band managers said ag Ghali wrote most of the lyrics.

In 2003, Vicki Huddleston, then U.S. ambassador to Mali, arranged a meeting with ag Ghali, part of a Bush administration effort to track radicals after the Sept. 11 attacks. “We had intelligence al Qaeda was about to open a new front” in the region, said Huddleston, who suspected ag Ghali was behind the move.

Huddleston was charmed by the charismatic, “good-looking guy” wearing a turban that “made him look the part of a romantic Tuareg.” But when he denied flirting with radicalism, she said, “I knew he was lying.”

Ag Ghali eventually renounced the music festival he had championed. “Stop this,” Ansar remembered him saying. “You are bringing non-Muslims for debauchery.”

The festival’s popularity, and Tinariwen’s, swelled. In 2010, the band performed alongside Shakira and Alicia Keys at the World Cup in South Africa.

Tinariwen performing at the FIFA World Cup Kick-Off concert on June 10, 2010, in Johannesburg, South Africa. Photo: Michelly Rall/Getty Images For Live Earth Events

In 2011, Tinariwen released its Grammy-winning album, “Tassili,” and Libyan leader Gadhafi was overthrown. Tuareg fighters left Libya and flooded into Mali. Many younger Tuareg turned on ag Ghali, seeing him as a sellout who lived in luxury and cozied up to Mali’s government.

Sidelined by former comrades, ag Ghali founded his own Islamist militant group.

The slow-motion implosion of West Africa soon followed.

Silenced

The last Festival in the Desert held in Mali took place on the outskirts of Timbuktu, where Tinariwen shared the stage with Bono, of the Irish band U2. The final curtain fell on Jan. 14, 2012. Two days later, ag Ghali’s former Tuareg rebel group launched a rebellion, later seizing Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal.

Bono, in black shirt, with Manny Ansar, bottom, before flying out of Timbuktu, Mali, in 2012 after playing the Festival in the Desert with Tinariwen. Photo: Illili Ansar

Within months, ag Ghali’s new Islamist group and another extremist force, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, drove the Tuareg into retreat. After seizing Timbuktu, ag Ghali banned what he called the “music of Satan.” Women were barred for going outdoors without their husbands or brothers. Religious police whipped suspected heretics.

“They installed the rule that when a man joined the fighters, he ‘got’ a woman,” International Criminal Court prosecutors wrote later. The men beat and raped their new wives, as well as other women, prosecutors alleged.

In early 2013, ag Ghali’s militants ambushed Tinariwen musicians and held guitarist Abdallah ag Lamida for weeks after catching him trying to retrieve his instruments.

Abdallah ag Lamida performing in August 2022 with his band Tinariwen in London. Photo: Dafydd Owen/Avalon/Zuma Press

Iyad ag Ghali, right, during a 2012 meeting with Burkina Faso Foreign Minister Djibril Bassole in Kidal, Mali. Photo: Reuters

The U.S. designated ag Ghali a terrorist that year. France deployed combat troops to Mali and, backed by Malian soldiers and logistical support from the U.S. and others, dislodged the Islamists from Timbuktu. For ag Ghali, it was a setback, not a loss.

In 2017, he drew several al Qaeda-linked militant groups into a coalition called Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin, which translates as Support Group for Islam and Muslims. The coalition launched a new wave of insurgency across West Africa.

Ag Ghali’s men seized gold mines, extorted villagers for their cattle and took protection money from drug- and human-traffickers. The militants were linked to almost 2,300 violent incidents in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and other West African countries last year, leaving more than 8,880 people dead, according to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, a think tank in the Pentagon’s National Defense University. The center analyzes data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, a U.S.-based nonprofit monitoring service.

The militant coalition didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Frustrated military officers in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger overthrew civilian rulers in a series of coups starting in 2020, claiming they were better able to defeat the insurgents.

The coups upended the West’s counterinsurgency strategy in West Africa. Over the past three years, the juntas have evicted French counterterrorism forces. Niger’s military rulers ordered 1,100 U.S. troops out of the country and took over a $110 million American drone base.

Mali booted a 15,000-strong United Nations force and hired Russian Wagner Group mercenaries to provide security. The Russians have been accused of massacring civilians, and ag Ghali has sought popular support by opposing Moscow’s presence. In July, ag Ghali’s forces joined a Tuareg attack in northern Mali that killed at least 50 Wagner fighters, the company’s biggest single loss in Africa.

Benin, Ivory Coast and Togo, relatively stable countries on the Gulf of Guinea coast, are struggling to fend off insurgents pouring across their northern borders.

Ag Ghali, recalling the backlash to his heavy-handed rule in Timbuktu, has made some effort to soften the image of his militant coalition and assume the trappings of government, suggesting an ambition to establish a West African caliphate.

A crowd watching the aftermath of a September 2024 attack by militants in Bamako, Mali Photo: Hadama Diakite/EPA/ShutterStock

His fighters have fended off Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, a rival group that has executed village elders and demanded fealty from residents. Ag Ghali’s protection comes at a price: In one village in central Mali, it was 40 cows and 130 pounds of sorghum a year. In exchange, ag Ghali’s men settle disputes among hunters, fishermen, nomadic herders and farmers, who squabble over grazing lands and water resources.

“It’s safe,” said Ibrahim Cisse, a Malian community leader. “But it’s a prison.”

The threat of violence is never far from the surface. Last August, ag Ghali’s militants gunned down some 600 villagers in Barsalogho, Burkina Faso, as the residents dug defensive trenches to try to protect their settlement, according to a French intelligence report.

In June, the International Criminal Court in The Hague unsealed an arrest warrant for ag Ghali, charging him with war crimes and crimes against humanity. He remains at large.

Last summer, Tinariwen performed in U.S. cities, including Boston and Los Angeles.

[qnewsau]

Mali moves to outlaw gay sex for first time

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Mali moves to outlaw gay sex for first time

Lawmakers in the West African nation of Mali have voted to install a new penal code that would outlaw gay sex between men for the first time in the former French colony.

On October 31, Malian Minister of Justice, Mamadou Kassogue, declared “there are now provisions prohibiting homosexuality in Mali, and that anyone engaging in this practice or promoting or condoning it will be prosecuted,” in a video shared to X by AES Info.

Mali’s National Transitional Council voted 131 in favour and only 1 against the proposal, which has not yet been published so it is unknown what sanctions will be placed on those convicted of the new law if it is approved by Mali’s military leaders.

Mail has been ruled by the military junta of Assimi Goita for over three years, and removed French as one of its official languages in June last year in a referendum that was supported by 97 percent of voters who took part in the election, though over 60 percent of Malians chose not to participate.

Goita’s rule has also seen the exit of French troops from Mali and closer ties with Russia, with Wagner Group merceneries joining Mali’s fight against Islamist groups in Africa’s Sahel region.

While the population of Mali is 90 percent Muslim, it was one of a group of African former French colonies that had not historically criminalised homosexuality as their laws were based on the Napoleonic Code that emerged in France following the French Revolution.

The imposition of the Napoleonic code also legalised homosexuality in many continental European countries in the early 19th Century where France’s armies were successful during the Napoleonic Wars.

Mali’s military leadership had agreed to hold general elections in February this year in return for sanctions against the country being lifted by the Economic Community of West African States group of countries, but failed to do so.

For the latest LGBTIQA+ Sister Girl and Brother Boy news, entertainment, community stories in Australia, visit qnews.com.au. Check out our latest magazines or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

[warningsine]

A jihadist attack in the Malian capital targeting a military police training camp and airport left more than 70 people dead and 200 wounded, one of the highest tolls suffered by the security forces in recent years.

A security source speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP that 77 people had been killed and 255 wounded in Tuesday's attacks in Bamako.

An authenticated confidential official document put the toll at around 100, naming 81 victims.

Thursday's edition of Le Soir daily reported that the funerals of around 50 military police students would take place that day.

Mali's military-led authorities have so far not released a precise death toll from the attacks, claimed by the al Qaeda-linked Group to Support Islam and Muslims (JNIM).

The operation was the first of its kind in years and dealt a forceful blow to the ruling junta, experts say.

The Malian capital is normally spared the sort of attacks that occur almost daily in some parts of the West African country.

The general staff admitted late Tuesday that "some human lives were lost", notably personnel at the military police centre.

JNIM claimed that a few dozen of its fighters had killed and wounded "hundreds" from the opposing ranks, including members of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner.

The attack came a day after junta-led Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso marked a year since the creation of their breakaway grouping, the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).

The trio, which have been under military rule following a string of coups since 2020, have broken ties with former colonial ruler France and turned militarily and politically towards other partners including Russia.

The Sahel states in January said they were turning their backs on regional bloc the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

Mali has since 2012 been ravaged by different factions affiliated to al Qaeda and the Islamic State group.

'Condolences' and condemnation

Volleys of gunfire interspersed with explosions broke out in Bamako at around 5:00 am (0500 GMT) Tuesday.

JNIM fighters attacked a military police school and stormed part of the nearby airport complex, where a military facility adjoins the civilian one.

The jihadist group broadcast images showing fighters strolling around and firing randomly into the windows of the presidential hangar and destroying aircraft.

Bamako has not seen such an operation since 2016, when gunmen attacked a hotel housing the former European training mission of the Malian army, with no casualties reported among the mission staff.

The flow of information is restricted under the ruling junta and details on how Tuesday's attack was carried out and its impact are sketchy.

Mali's neighbour Senegal and African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat on Thursday condemned the attacks.

The French embassy in Bamako offered its "condolences to the government of Mali".

Jean-Herve Jezequel, Sahel project director at the International Crisis Group, told AFP one possible hypothesis could be that "the jihadists are trying to send a message to the Malian authorities that they can hit them anywhere and therefore that the big cities must also be protected".

He said the aim could be to force the state to concentrate its resources in populated areas and have fewer troops in rural areas "where these jihadist groups have established their strongholds".

Experts say the attack undermines the junta's military strategy and breakaway rhetoric, which claims the security situation is under control despite jihadists roaming the Sahel region for years.

Tuesday's events have largely prompted condemnation and calls for unity within Mali.

Against a backdrop of severe restrictions on freedom of expression under the junta, virtually no public figures have spoken out against the apparent security lapse.

The daily Nouvel Horizon, a rare dissenting voice, wrote on its front page that it was "time to apportion blame at all levels".

Many Malians have taken to social media to call for those responsible for the security breach to be punished.

The events have also raised fears that certain communities could be targeted in retaliation.  

(AFP)

[cannibalguy]

MALI - alleged cannibalism by soldiers (warning - graphic images)

Videos are circulating on social networks such as TikTok showing an alleged case of the Malian army practising cannibalism. A soldier, dressed in an army uniform, is seen gutting his dead opponent. In the second part of the video, he roasts the victim’s liver over a fire and expresses his intention to eat it. The soldier filming this is holding severed fingers as a souvenir. The video is…