Mali: Islamic State group takes Tidermene, Menaka on reprieve

Entrance to the town of Ménaka, Mali. Souleymane AG ANARA / AFP

Text by: David Baché

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The commune of Tidermène, in northeastern Mali, near the border with Niger, has been in the hands of the Islamic State group since Monday afternoon. The city of Menaka is now surrounded by IS jihadists who have gradually gained the upper hand over their rivals in the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (Jnim).

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This time, they didn't even have to fight. According to several local, security and community sources, the jihadists of the Sahelian branch of the Islamic State group invested Tidermène, about 75 kilometers north of Menaka, Monday afternoon. Their rivals in the AQIM-linked JNIM made no attempt to oppose. A little more than a year after the start of the vast and deadly offensive launched by IS in northeastern Mali – nearly a thousand deaths since March 2022, according to cumulative counts of local communities – the city of Ménaka is now encircled, isolated. After the capture of Tamalat, Anderamboukane, Inekar, Talataye, the arrival of the Islamic State organization in Tidermène deprives Ménaka of its last access route.

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They cut directly Ménaka from the North ", now "the Islamic State can prevent any supply that is not under escort", note bitterly several local sources. Over the past year, the population of the town of Ménaka has tripled due to the influx of displaced people who have fled attacks from neighbouring communes. According to UN figures, the population of Ménaka has increased from 11,000 to more than 30,000 inhabitants, welcomed in the greatest precariousness. The testimonies of civilians, joined in recent weeks by RFI, evoke families crammed into the courtyards of houses, in makeshift camps set up on the side of the roads or even outside the city, often without direct access to water and without sufficient resources to buy food.

« Fight or pack up »

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It's over "We are waiting for the end of Ramadan, and then we will see what people want to do: fight all or pack up. This source believes that the inhabitants of the city and, more generally, of the region, have been abandoned to their fate. The MSA (Movement for the Salvation of Azawad) and Gatia (Groupe autodéfense touareg imghad et allies), armed groups that signed the 2015 peace agreement and have been at the forefront for a year in trying to protect civilians in the region, have not received the help they expected from other armed groups in the north. As for MINUSMA peacekeepers and Malian soldiers present in the city, with a handful of their Russian auxiliaries, they remain stationed in the city. None of the sources contacted by RFI believes that these forces are able to defend the city against the hundreds of fighters – more than a thousand according to some estimates – of the Islamic State group, active in this area of northeastern Mali, but also on the other side of the border with Niger, nearby.

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We fought with Issoufou and Bazoum [the former and current president of neighboring Niger, Editor's note], with IBK [former president of Mali overthrown by the August 2020 coup, Editor's note] and with Barkhane [the French force driven out of Mali by the transitional authorities and which completed its withdrawal last August], but most of the time, we remained alone," laments an executive of the Platform, which brings together the MSA and Gatia. Neither the successive attacks nor the hundreds of Malians killed over the past year in this part of the country have extracted a single communiqué or statement from the Malian transitional authorities.

Residents on probation

Asked by RFI about the fall of Tidermène, the more than precarious situation of Ménaka and the sending of possible reinforcements, neither the Malian army nor the Malian Ministry of Defense have responded. MINUSMA indicates that "currently, the situation in the city of Ménaka and its immediate surroundings remains relatively calm. MINUSMA and the Malian defence and security forces are coordinating their efforts to protect civilians. These reassuring statements contrast with the dismay displayed by local community representatives contacted by RFI.

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I do not believe that they will attack the city now, judges however an executive of the Platform, it mobilizes too many men. In fact, the IS group has so far never sought to occupy cities. Keeping them in the long term would require significant resources. Circulating, carrying out rapid attacks and then withdrawing while ensuring control of the sector, this seems to be the strategy adopted. "I don't think there will be a battle," said another security source in northern Mali, who is following the situation very closely. ISGS first weakened the MSA and Gatia, then the Jnim. Now they are masters of the field. Not necessarily enough to reassure the inhabitants of Ménaka, who now know they are on borrowed time.

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