Convoy of HCUA and MAA (separatist) fighters
On Thursday October 6, unidentified gunmen carried out an attack targeting security forces at the Tazalite refugee camp in the Tahoua Region, Niger. As many as 22 of the camps security forces composed of Nigerien soldiers, gendarmes and guards were left dead and additionally 5 wounded. Many indicators pointed at jihadist groups like AQIM, al-Mourabitoune or ISGS (MUJAO’s new outfit) roaming the Sahelian border zones as the likely perpetrators, events in the wake of the attack during the last days may suggest otherwise.
The Nigerien Minister of National Defense Hassoumi Massaoudou quickly pointed at what he described as narco-terrorists likely from the Kidal region and Tinzawatène in comments to RFI, he further stated that there is no distinction between groups like AQIM, Ansar Dine, HCUA and drugtraffickers. These comments were later condemned in a statement issued by CMA/HCUA spokesman Almouzamile Ag Mohamed.
Accumulating reports and comments by Nigerien officials signalled that the attackers came from Mali and returned in that same direction. The days that followed the Tazalite attack came to show the serious ramifications the attack would have inside Malian territory. In the early morning on the Saturday that followed, almost two days after the events in Tazalite local sources reported that French forces of Operation Barkhane in Tinzawatène, far north Kidal region, conducted a counter-terrorism operation carrying out multiple arrests including an airstrike that destroyed a CMA technical and the fighter on board the vehicle named as Mossa Ag Abdi, the buried bodies of two others were later found by locals.
Further south in the area of Ménaka unidentified gunmen on board light trucks attacked the localities of Sahène and Tinasben, an area where Imghad nomads dwell, also a control zone of the pro-Mali/loyalist militia GATIA. Reports speak of 3 dead, multiple wounded and 17 people abducted following the attack, all being civilians. The assailants reportedly burned but also seized vehicles, a local source reported that CMA fighters was behind the attack, we can not exclude the possibility that it could be the same group of people that attacked the Tessalite refugee camp, although caution recommended against jumping to conclusions since this narrative serves GATIA who’s activists rapidly took the oppurtunity to put blame on its archrival claiming that the militia did not have an military control points in the area, later publishing a list of the victims of the attack. Furthermore, the Nigerien Minister of National Defense Massaoudou further confirmed that Nigerien armed forces conducted an extensive combing operation in this particular zone in pursuit of the perpetrators, it is as much possible that vindictive Nigerien soldiers carried out the atrocities that took place in the area.
Like the events already mentioned not being enough, this particular Saturday in Mali would take an even more dramatic turn, with an explosion reported close to the MINUSMA base in Kidal around 18h00 local time, as more details emerged it became clear that the High Council for the Unity of Azawad’s (HCUA) Chief of Staff Cheikh Ag Aoussa had been killed in the blast. Ag Aoussa was a controversial character being the second in command after Iyad Ag Ghaly within the local AQ front group Ansar Dine, although leaving timingly with the beginning of the French Operation Serval for the more moderate camp to end up as being HCUA’s military commander. Ag Aoussa was more then just a military commander for a local separatist faction, he was an emblematic figure within the Tuareg rebel movement for decades, a person with a long history, having partaken in the Lebanon War and the Libyan-Chadian Conflict before returning to Mali to participate in the Tuareg Rebellion of the 90’s. Ag Aoussa’s death comes at a critical time with a security situation continuing to detoriate with the wider region of ‘Azawad’ and Mopti pulled down in a deep cycle of violence.
Many questions surrounding Ag Aoussa’s death remain unanswered, just before being killed in a suspected IED detonation or car-bomb explosion, Ag Aoussa attended a biweekly security meeting at the MINUSMA base with other respresentatives from CMA, MINUSMA and the French military mission Operation Barkhane. The explosion that struck his vehicle occurred 320 meters from the MINUSMA camp’s main gate. Most of the damages on the vehicle were fire damages, with the hood of the vehicle bent up indicating that something exploded under the front of the vehicle. Judging by the damages a seemingly small device, likewise a very small crater suggesting that a sticky bomb was placed under the vehicle or an IED on top of the road disguised as trash. Out of these two hypotheses, Ag Aoussa’s people from CMA/HCUA issued a statement in which they distinctly favored the former, asserting that the killing of Ag Aoussa was a targeted assassination and that an explosive device was planted on the vehicle inside the MINUSMA camp during the actual meeting. In the same context, AQIM’s al-Mourabitoune Brigade also weighed in by releasing an eulogy letter or statement of condolences on the death of Cheikh Ag Aoussa “signed” by Khalid Abu al-‘Abbas, more commonly known as Mokhtar Belmokhtar. The main point in the statement except for paying tribute to Cheikh Ag Aoussa was to take the oppurtunity to undermine the Barkhane mission by blaming France for the alleged targeted assassination, additionally, mentioning the French airstrike that killed CMA fighters in Tinzawatène.
Already the day after the serious developments of October 8, an IED detonation struck a Barkhane convoy in Abeïbara, resulting in several wounded who reportedly were taken to the Amachach base hospital. Mali has already seen a notable uptick of attacks and armed confrontations, and as shown, the Tazalite attack in Niger has had serious ramifications in northern Mali escalating the conflict between all parties involved even further with much more to be expected.
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