Mali: an isolated village after the destruction of a bridge attributed to the jihadists

Published on : 11/03/2021 – 19:15Modified : 11/03/2021 – 19:17

The only asphalt road leading to the village of Dogofry cut in two by a gaping hole: the inhabitants filmed the damage caused by an alleged terrorist attack on the bridge which gave access to the village.

^{The video was posted to Facebook by a resident of Dogofry on November 1, 2021.}

The bridge was located about 5 km south of the village of Dogofry, on the national road leading to Bamako and access to northern Mali and Mauritania. Without this bridge, Dogofry finds himself isolated: the inhabitants can no longer go to the neighboring town of Diabaly, the food supply is threatened and no military reinforcements can come to defend the village in the event of an attack. The nearest military base is in Diabaly.

“If there is no more bridge, it will be famine”

Ahmed (pseudonym) resides in Dogofry. He explains that destroying the bridge allows the jihadists to block the village:

Every Tuesday is the market in Dogofry. This Tuesday [2 novembre, après la destruction du pont, NDLR], it was not like before. Usually, people from Ségou and from all over Mali come to the market, and that’s how the inhabitants of Dogofry get their supplies like sugar and salt. So if there is no longer a bridge, we will no longer have access to that, there will be famine. [Les jihadistes] wanted to put us in this situation. Their goal is to block Dogofry.

This is not the first time that the jihadists have targeted infrastructure in Mali: the village of Farabougou, about forty kilometers from Dogofry, had been cut off from the rest of the country in October 2020 when two bridges providing access had been dynamited. The town is besieged by jihadists, plagued by a food shortage.

Several attacks took place near Dogofry in the previous days: on October 20, a transport bus was attacked on the same road and several passengers were abducted. On October 24, individuals tried to blow up the bridge for the first time, without success.

After the explosion of the bridge, the women of the village demonstrated in an attempt to draw the attention of the international community to the security situation.

^{The video, filmed by a resident of Dogofry, shows women going out to protest against insecurity after the destruction of the bridge on November 1.}

“They shoot at anything that moves, they don’t try to understand”

According to Kassim (pseudonym), another inhabitant of Dogofry, the villagers are exasperated by the insecurity that reigns in the locality:

The Niono area has been the target of a battle for five or six months. Dogofry is fed up, we lost a lot. We lost a lot of men, [les jihadistes] even killed women. They shoot at everything that moves, they don’t try to understand. They prevent us from going to the fields, I lost a lot of comrades because of that. [Ces attaques] caused famine because we lost a lot of cultivated land.

>> READ ON THE OBSERVERS: In Mali, rice production threatened by terrorist attacks in the center of the country

On November 2, the inhabitants of Dogofry mobilized to repair the bridge, in order to allow vehicles to circulate on the road. The Malian armed forces came to secure the area.

^{Many villagers came out to repair the bridge, as shown in this video shared on WhatsApp on November 2, 2021.}

The mayor of Dogofry, Zoumana Coulibaly, contacted by the Observers editorial staff, clarified that armed terrorist groups have been raging in the area since October 6: “This year, 4,000 hectares of agricultural land could not be cultivated because of armed terrorist groups. ” He asks the authorities to take their responsibilities and protect the inhabitants.

Since the end of September, the attacks redouble in intensity in the circle of Niono. The Katiba Macina, a terrorist group linked to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqmi), is particularly active in the region. a temporary cease-fire was concluded in March 2021 between the jihadists and the traditional dozo hunters, who are trying to secure the villages. This agreement has been broken since July, and the security situation has deteriorated.

Thanks to Baba Maiga for translating from Bambara.