Regularly victims of assassination and often kidnapping, officials and traditional authorities became, overnight, the privileged targets of terrorists in central Mali.
“It is no longer a matter of giving information to anyone. Here, from now on we are the ones hiding and the terrorists are walking around without bother” this civil servant said in a placid voice, reached by telephone 24 hours after the assassination of Amadou Diallo, first councilor of the village chief of Mougnakana, in the commune of Mondoro. The man was coldly killed down at his home on Sunday May 28 by terrorists. Its executioners, assure local sources, “had come with open face and left calmly.”
Such scenes, there have been several ones in the center of Mali, almost abandoned by the Malian authorities in favor of the Kaatibat of Amadou Kouffa. “Since 2015, Islamists have executed 40 men in detention including village leaders and local officials”, Human Rights Watch’s West Africa director said this week. Adding that some were murdered in front of their own families”.
People who are suspected of being close to the state are identified and murdered, the “symbols of the West” such as the school destroyed. “Here, only teachers and nurses remain. The prefect and the sub-prefects left a long time ago”, testifies a teacher in Youwarou who “cannot take the risk of being quoted”. He adds that all the schools in the area are closed except in the city of Youwarou alone.
But there too, teachers admit that they still remain with a big fright in the belly. According to the Integrated Security Plan for Central Regions prepared last February by the Malian Ministry of Security, only two units of the National Guard platoon and the Territorial Brigade are on site in Youwarou.
Today, most administrators in remote areas have abandoned their positions. “We cannot count on anyone, we are surrounded”, said this administrator. Five days ago, the school of Sah, 45km from Youwarou, was burned down by the new masters of the place. In the area, transporters are regularly stopped to check if there are officials in the vehicles, ensure many inhabitants.
For example, an agent of the National Institute for Social Welfare (INPS), Amadou Ndjoum, was abducted on 26 April and is still in the hands of his captors. It is this situation feared by this elected official who has returned to Bamako since the assassination, within two weeks, of the mayors of Mondoro and Boni last January: “it is completely a purge against officials.”
Aboubacar Dicko