HUMAN WRONGS WATCH

Human Wrongs Watch

William Engdahl

Human Wrongs Watch

By Rene Wadlow*, TRANSCEND – Since March 2012, Mali has been effectively divided into two roughly equal halves. The northern half is under the control of two rival Tuareg groups with additional non-Turareg fighters coming from other Sahel countries and perhaps from beyond.

**Photo: A Bozo girl in Bamako | Credit: Ferdinand Reus from Arnhem, Holland | Wikimedia Commons

The larger Turareg faction is the Mouvement national de liberation de l’Azawand (MNLA). It is larger than its rivals but less well armed.

Its main aim is to create an independent State, Azawad, and the leaders of the MNLA have already declared the formal independence of the Tuareg cultural zone of northern Mali as the State of Azawad.

One Tuareg rival is the Ansar Dine “defenders of the faith” led by Iyad Ag Ghaly. Ansar Dine is an Islamist group which says that it wants to apply Islamic law to all of Mali.

Human Wrongs Watch

Bamako/Dakar, 18 January 2013 (IRIN*) – French and Malian military forces have blocked the access of aid workers to Konna in Mopti Region, the scene of heavy fighting over the past week, causing increasing frustration for humanitarians.

**Photo: Anna Jefferys/IRIN. Displaced northern Malians in Mopti (file photo)

“Despite our repeated demands, access to Konna has been refused,” said Malik Allaouna, head of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)MSF Brussels, in an 18 January communiqué. “They must permit impartial medical aid to reach conflict-affected zones. We call on all parties to the conflict to not only respect the civil population but also humanitarian action.”

MSF has been negotiating access with the civil authorities and Malian armed forces, and the French government and its military all week. A further meeting was held today, said MSF spokesperson Gregory Vandendaelen, in Brussels, but the outcome is not yet known.