{"id":5345,"date":"2019-02-08T10:26:32","date_gmt":"2019-02-08T10:26:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sahelien.com\/en\/?p=5345"},"modified":"2019-02-08T10:26:34","modified_gmt":"2019-02-08T10:26:34","slug":"in-the-center-of-mali-three-villages-have-been-besieged-by-jihadists-for-more-than-a-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sahelien.com\/en\/in-the-center-of-mali-three-villages-have-been-besieged-by-jihadists-for-more-than-a-year\/","title":{"rendered":"In the center of Mali, three villages have been besieged by jihadists for more than a year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The markets are closed and\nthere is no more weekly fair. The supply of the villages of Kouakourou, Togu\u00e9r\u00e9\nCoumb\u00e9 and Dialloub\u00e9 is done under army escort.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is Thursday, the day of the weekly fair of Mopti,\ncapital town of the fifth administrative region. In the city center, the\nstreets and alleys are crowded. A little further, on the banks of the Niger\nRiver, merchants from wihin the region sell and buy various items under a\nblazing sun. The exchanges or communications are mainly in Fulani, Bozo, Sonra\u00ef\nand Bambara. Behind this melting pot, hides a real worry in some people.\nEspecially, those from Kouakourou, Togu\u00e9r\u00e9 Coumb\u00e9 and Dialloub\u00e9. These three\nvillages are surrounded by terrorist groups who accuse their inhabitants of\ncollaborating with the Malian State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more than a year, soldiers have taken positions in\nthese different localities. The armed groups accuse the people of having called\nthe Malian soldiers. That’s why they don\u2019t hesitate to kidnap or even kill\npeople who dare to venture into these areas. There, the markets are closed and\nthere is no more weekly fair. \u201cIt is\nimpossible today to go fishing on the river when you are from Kouakourou\u201d<\/em>,\nsays a young fisherman who we will name by his initials A. T.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe just want to be free\nfrom this embargo …\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A native of Kouakourou, he comes from a fishing\nfamily. Each year, they operate along the river. But since two years, A. T. is\nforced to leave fishing to become a fuel seller in the city of Mopti. Today, he\nhas rented his canoes because of the situation prevailing on-site. He can no\nlonger go to his native village, nor travel on the Niger River. As part of our\nstory, A. T. takes us to one of his relatives. Aged 53, Sidi (assumed name)\narrived in Mopti in 2017 and has no longer returned to his village in\nKouakourou. \u201cWe just want to be able to\nfree ourselves from this unjust embargo and join our family …\u201d<\/em> he says.\nAnd to add: \u201cEven if I want to send a bag\nof rice to the village, no canoe owner will risk his life to transport it\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abuses by armed groups are intensifying in the center of the country, forcing people to flee. On the banks of the river, more precisely in Mopti-Hind\u00e9, a neighborhood of Komoguel 2, about twenty Bozo women recount their ordeal. They witnessed the kidnapping of their own husbands and children by terrorists around Kouakourou. \u201cWe can\u2019t talk about forgiveness as long as our loved ones are detained\u201d<\/em>, a woman told Sahelien.com correspondent. Her husband and son are among those kidnapped. And to continue that they were forced to abandon the canoes to take refuge in a neighboring village. With the help of the villagers, they arrived in the city. \u201cSince then, it is the inhabitants of Mopti-Hind\u00e9 who are taking care of us. We only once received help from the governor\u201d, she said.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sahelien.com<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The markets are closed and there is no more weekly fair. The supply of the villages of Kouakourou, Togu\u00e9r\u00e9 Coumb\u00e9 and Dialloub\u00e9 is done under army escort. It is Thursday, the day of the weekly fair of Mopti, capital town of the fifth administrative region. In the city center, the streets and alleys are crowded. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5345","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mali","8":"category-societe"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sahelien.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sahelien.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sahelien.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sahelien.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sahelien.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5345"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sahelien.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5347,"href":"https:\/\/sahelien.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5345\/revisions\/5347"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sahelien.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sahelien.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sahelien.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sahelien.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}