Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Bamako (Agenzia Fides)- There is growing concern in Mali and Niger as tension rises with the ethnic Berber Tuareg nomads in the Sahel area.
On September 14 a group of Tuareg rebels attacked a small army camp at Tinzaouatène, in the north east of Mali, on the border with Algeria. No casualties were reported but the incident violates the treaty which had held for over two weeks between the army and a group led by Ibrahim Ag Bahanga, which has held thirty soldiers hostage since August.
Tension had flared up on Wednesday 12 when shots were fired against a US transport aircraft as it flew over the area. The aircraft, which suffered no major damage, had delivered a load of food supplies to an army garrison at Tinzaouatène.
The Mali authorities called on the US airforce for help because the zone had been mined by the rebels and the garrison was isolated from the rest of the country. The only way to send supplies is by air. The soldiers are deployed in the area to control a transit point for international drug trafficking
Tuareg rebellions in northern Mali began in 1990. In 1992 a cease fire agreement was reached with the mediation of Algeria. The end of hostilities was signed at Timbuctoo, in March 1996. The peace agreement foresaw the integration of the militia in the regular army, greater autonomy for the northern regions and investments for the development of the area. In 2000 Tuareg chief Ibrahim Ag Bahanga, affirming that the state had failed to respect its commitments, resumed guerrilla war attacking an army post and taking a few hostages. The crisis was resolved thanks to Algerian mediation but the rebel leader has since taken up arms again.
Ibrahim Ag Bahanga would appear to have more of a personal agenda than actual political claims, and in fact he does not have the support of the whole of the Tuareg people in Mali, nevertheless he is a thorn in the flesh for the government in Bamako. In Niger the rebels of the Niger Movement for Justrice have taken up arms against the government demanding to be integrated into the regular army and more state investments in their settlement areas.
So far the rebels in Niger and those in Mali would not appear to be no contact but both crises have an international extension, demonstrated by the involvement of US military in the area to train the local armies to deal with rebel and terrorist movements. Washington is concerned about the Algerian Salafita Group for Preaching and Combat which recently declared its alignment with the Bin Laden movement becoming Al Qaida for the Maghreb. In Niger there are also interests connected with the working of the uranium mines. The Tuareg are therefore in danger of being pawns in a must vaster scenario.
(see dossier Fides in drugs in Africa http://www.fides.org/eng/documents/dossier_droga_aFrica_030807.doc).
(L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 15/9/2007 righe 35 parole 437)
