Mali: an assassinated imam, strong inter-community tensions in Niono

Malian soldiers in Niono, January 19, 2013 (illustrative image).

Jérôme Delay / AP Photo

Text by: David Baché

3 min

In Mali, the situation is very tense in the Niono circle, in the Ségou region, in the center of the country.

While the siege of the village of Farabougou by jihadists has continued for nearly a month, it is other localities in this circle which have experienced worrying incidents in recent hours.

Inter-community tensions that have caused deaths.

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The imam of N'Débougou was killed last night, Monday, November 2.

A few hours earlier, a shopkeeper deputy to the imam had also been assassinated in Toridagako, according to an elected official from the area.

Several officials from the Niono circle, contacted by RFI, were able to confirm these assassinations, the circumstances of which remain unclear.

But these assassinations gave rise to strong tensions, traditional Dozo hunters and Fulani communities blaming themselves for them, " 

 ," said another elected representative of the area.

These localities are only located about sixty kilometers from the

, surrounded for nearly a month by jihadists.

It is difficult to say whether to establish a direct link between these events.

► Read also: Mali: nearly 60 jihadists killed in an operation by the Barkhane force

Mediation attempts

This Tuesday, November 3, in the morning, the weekly market of Dogofry, very close to Farabougou, could not be held.

Dozo hunters are said to have brought Fulani showmen off their vehicles.

There would have been deaths according to several sources, but no final cross-checked report is available.

Jihadists, who claim to be such (without expressing their membership of a particular group), have been banning all land access to Farabougou for nearly a month, despite the arrival in the village of Malian soldiers, there is a ten days, by helicopter.

Local notables involved in a mediation attempt explain that the jihadists have both ideological claims - such as the application of Sharia law - and community claims, after mutual accusations of assassinations and cattle thefts between Bambara populations and Dozo hunters on the one hand, and Fulani inhabitants on the other. 

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