Mali: who are the attackers of Farabougou?

Jihadist fighters in Mali.

(Drawing).

AP Photo / File

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2 min

While the attack and then the blockade of Farabougou have not been the subject of any claim to date, what do we know precisely about the armed men who surround this village in central Mali?

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The ordeal continues for the

villagers of Farabougou

, attacked and then surrounded by armed men who have prohibited access for 16 days.

The attackers accuse its inhabitants of being involved in the death of members of the Fulani community, and in particular of a young shepherd, murdered earlier this month.

They present this siege as a retaliatory measure. 

The inhabitants of Farabougou and many local sources speak unanimously of these attackers as “jihadists”.

A term also used by members of the mediation team, in contact with these armed men via intermediaries, and who explain that the attackers claim themselves as such.

Without however confirming their membership in a particular group.

Some mediators

believe that, according to their own "observations", it could be a fighter of the Jnim, the Support Group for Islam and Muslims, led by

Iyad Ag Ghaly

and linked to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

They even think that it would be, more precisely, the men of

Amadou Kouffa

, Malian preacher who founded the Macina Liberation Front, today called Katiba Macina.

Without being able to affirm it with certainty, several sources, military or security, share this analysis.

One of them recalls that Farabougou is located not far from the Ouagadou forest, which regularly serves as a refuge for these terrorist groups.

Above all, many attacks carried out in the past in nearby localities - in Nampala, Diabaly, Sokolo, or even Niono - have been claimed by the Support Group for Islam and Muslims and, for some, by the Katiba Macina precisely.

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  • Mali

  • Terrorism

  • Society