APA – Bamako (Mali) – Insecurity continues to increase in Mali.
Early on Tuesday, November 7, in the Gao region, unidentified gunmen stopped a vehicle carrying several radio presenters before unloading all the passengers.
At least one person was killed, Abdoul Aziz Djibrilla, host of Radio Naata in Labbezanga, a town in the Gao region bordering Niger.
The attackers also wounded Harouna Attino, host of Radio Alafia in Ansongo.
Before leaving the scene, they kidnapped the director of Radio Coton d’Ansongo, Saleck Ag Jiddou dit Zeidane, and his host, Moustaph Koné.
This attack comes one day after another raid on the same road (Gao-Ansongo) against humanitarian workers of the NGO “Action contre la faim” (ACF).
A deputy director of the RRM (Rapid Response Mechanism) project, which provides emergency assistance to displaced persons, was shot at close range, and an investigator accompanying him was wounded. Both were traveling from Gao to Ansongo.
The road is one of the most dangerous in the country.
Fighters from the Islamic State of the Sahel (ISIS) operate here with impunity.
In addition to deadly attacks, the area is subject to other acts such as kidnapping of cattle and people, ransom demands, targeted killings, theft, kidnapping of cattle and people, assaults, all of which are common in the Sahel.
These incidents are very common on the roads linking Gao-Ansongo, Gao-Bourem and Gao-Labbezanga.
This situation comes at a time when a few days ago, on November 2, the tenth anniversary of the kidnapping and murder of two RFI special correspondents, Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon, was commemorated.
Other journalists remain missing in Mali since their abduction. They include Birama Touré, missing since January 2016, and Hamadoun Nialibouly and Moussa M’Bana Dicko, kidnapped in the Mopti region in 2020.
Humanitarian workers are not spared either.
In a report published in 2022, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali indicated that 56% of the total number of victims were civilians, totaling at least 1,092 deaths.
Much of the violence is attributed to various groups, including extremists affiliated with the Groupe de soutien à l’islam et aux musulmans (GSIM) and the EIS.
MD/ac/lb/as/APA