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'Two die' in Mali grenade assault

Two people have died in grenade attacks by Tuareg rebels in Mali's northern city of Gao. A servant was killed in the home of a local official and another man was seriously wounded in the house of a prominent member of Mali's parliament. One attacker died when a grenade exploded in his hand before he could throw it into the home of the head of a government development agency.

MALI: Abdoulaye: "I only spent three weeks there before they sent me home again...but I'm going back"

GAO Monday, August 04, 2008 (IRIN) - Abdoulaye (not his real name), 27, tried to illegally migrate from Mali to Spain a few months ago, but he was intercepted by the Spanish authorities in northern Morocco and sent home. Since then he has been living in Gao, the last big town in Mali before the Sahara crossing, trying to scrape together enough money to try again. “I left Gao for Spain. Crossing the desert took several weeks and was a terrible experience, but it’s worse when you get to...

MALI: Efforts to quell illegal migration

GAO Monday, August 04, 2008 (IRIN) - Abdoulaye, a Malian, spent more than US$500 to try to reach Spain across the Sahara, but he was caught by the Spanish authorities in Melilla, a Spanish enclave on the northern coast of Morocco and sent home 21 days later. A few months on, he remains undeterred. “Of course I was discouraged by my experience, but I am going to try again,” he told IRIN. He is currently working doing odd jobs to try to earn enough for another package to Europe. There are no...

MALI: Saving elephants, saving communities

BAMAKO Friday, August 29, 2008 (IRIN) - Implementers of an international project to help endangered elephants in Mali want to prove that by doing so, they can also help local communities adapt to climate change in the Sahel. The Malian government lists elephants in Gourma in the country's far desert north as highly endangered. A drought in the 1970’s killed most of the country's elephants leading the population to dwindle from several thousand down to 350. Often seen near Lake Banzena, about...

MALI: Civil society cautiously optimistic about prisoner release

BAMAKO Wednesday, September 10, 2008 (IRIN) - Malian civil society organisations say the 09 September release of 44 military prisoners by the rebel May 23 Alliance for Democratic Change in northern Mali is an important step to move past a year of conflict. Mariam Maiga, president of the National Peace Coalition Against Small Arms Trafficking, said the liberation of these prisoners by Tuareg rebel leader Ibrahim Ag Bahanga is critical for national unity. “Our organisation is so pleased because...

MALI-NIGER: Insecurity persists despite militia leader's arrest

BAMAKO Monday, September 29, 2008 (IRIN) - Analysts say despite the government's efforts to secure the north through its clampdown of a militia accused of masterminding recent Tuareg killings, lasting peace is still elusive in the north because of restive ex-fighters, extreme Sahelian poverty, and drug trafficking. Mali officials have reported arresting dozens of suspects in the Ganda Izo militia, or "children of the earth," including its leader Amadou Diallo who had fled to neighbouring...

MALI: Violence against women on rise

BAMAKO Thursday, October 02, 2008 (IRIN) - At least 300 women are victims of sexual violence every year in Bamako, according to local police records, but the actual figure is much higher said the president of the Bamako-based non-profit, Women in Law and Development in Africa. “Victims and their families rarely denounce rapists in order to preserve the family’s dignity and honour,” said the group’s president Sidibe Djenba Diop, “Rape cases are on the rise, yet neither the [Malian] culture nor...

MALI: Returnees sceptical about new EU information centre

BAMAKO Tuesday, October 07, 2008 (IRIN) - The European Union (EU) has opened its first multi-million dollar immigration centre in West Africa, but returnee migrants told IRIN the Bamako centre would not change their minds about migrating without visas. The EU-funded Centre for Information and Control of Migration (CIGEM) has been set up to fight illegal migration through job counselling for would-be and returned migrants. President Touré, speaking at the opening of the centre on 6 October,...

MALI: When the world’s deserts flood

In August, floods loosened the dry caked Sahelian earth in Gao, northern Mali, affecting more than 1,000 people, many of whom temporarily took refuge in area schools. While displaced families have since vacated schools in time for the beginning of the school year on 6 October, many families remain homeless, according to the Mali Red Cross. “Things have mostly returned to normal,” said Mali Red Cross Executive Secretary Sibiry Diarra, “People are staying with their families as their destroyed...

MALI: Returnees sceptical about new EU information centre

The European Union (EU) has opened its first multi-million dollar immigration centre in West Africa, but returnee migrants told IRIN the Bamako centre would not change their minds about migrating without visas. The EU-funded Centre for Information and Control of Migration (CIGEM) has been set up to fight illegal migration through job counselling for would-be and returned migrants. President Touré, speaking at the opening of the centre on 6 October, called on the estimated 20,000 Malians...