Tragic weekend in the Sahel: three blue helmets die in an explosion in Mali and twenty civilians are killed in Niger
The spread of the coronavirus in Africa does not stop the violence on the continent. Fighting and attacks continue day after day in Libya. In the case of the Sahel, a border area between several countries south of the Sahara, the second weekend of May shows tragic statistics of violence: three UN blue helmets killed by an explosion in Mali this Sunday, according to Efe, and about twenty civilians killed in Niger, according to the Nigerian media quoted by Europa Press.
The military, whose nationalities have not been revealed by MINUSMA, the UN peace mission, were on a routine patrol in an area near the town of Aguelhok, when the device was stepped on by the vehicle in which they were traveling, according to a statement by the agency reported by Efe.
A few hours after the explosion, the jihadist group Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin, a branch of al-Qaeda in the Sahel, claimed responsibility for the attack and said the attack took place three kilometres from Aguelhok and killed three Chadian "blue helmets".
The violence also hit Niger at the weekend. About twenty civilians were killed on Saturday by unidentified armed individuals in several villages in the commune of Anzourou, south-west Niger, according to sources quoted by the Europa Press agency.
The attackers arrived by motorbike on Saturday afternoon in villages such as Gadabo, Zibane Koira Zeina and Zibane Koira Tegui and caused a massacre during Ramadan, according to the ActuNiger website, which is echoed by Europa Press. In some of these villages, the assailants ordered the residents to leave under the threat of further attacks in the next few days. As a result, several villages in the region bordering Mali have been left empty after the presence of militiamen was confirmed weeks ago.
So far, neither the government nor the army has made any statement on the facts. Niger is one of the countries most affected by jihadist violence in the past year, especially in the Lake Chad area in the Diffa region. The country's borders with Burkina Faso and Mali are also very insecure because jihadist groups, including branches of Al Qaeda and the Daesh, are established there.
The peace mission in Mali has become in recent years the most dangerous of all the UN missions deployed in the world and is continuously under attack by the terrorist groups active in the country. The instability that is plaguing Mali began with the coup d'état in 2012, when Tuareg rebel groups, together with jihadist organisations, took control of the north of the country for ten months.
The jihadists were theoretically expelled in 2013 thanks to an international military intervention led by France, but large areas of the country, especially in the north and center, are escaping from state control, something that terrorist groups take advantage of.
The situation of insecurity in the area continues to deteriorate at a fast pace despite the spread of the coronavirus and the declaration of a state of emergency by the authorities. Therefore, governments have reinforced the military presence to contain attacks from groups such as the Islamic State of the Great Sahara, with a strong presence in the triangle formed by Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso.
