Mali witnesses globalized terrorism with escalated Daesh operations

Shaimaa Hefzy

As the terrorist Daesh organization got defeated in Syria and Iraq, and began dismantling in Libya, it is now compensating for its losses by acquiring areas of the Sahel countries, especially those suffering from security deterioration and ethnic and sectarian conflicts. The terrorist organization will find no more suitable place than Mali to achieve its goal.

Daesh’s West African affiliate claimed responsibility on Wednesday for an attack on an army patrol in northern Mali that killed 30 soldiers, according to a statement published by the SITE Intelligence Group.

Dozens of other soldiers were wounded in the ambush on Monday in Tabankort, in Mali’s Gao region, the army said.

The attack was the third major strike against Malian forces in the last two months by jihadist groups. The militants are mounting increasingly sophisticated operations across the Sahel region, a narrow band of scrubland below the Sahara.

Daesh claimed responsibility for an attack on an army post in early November that killed at least 53 soldiers, while an al Qaeda affiliate said it carried out coordinated raids in late September that killed 38 soldiers.

U.S. officials say the Sahel region, which lies south of the Sahara Desert, threatens to become a safe haven for terrorists to plot and carry out attacks worldwide. Mali, which is about twice the size of Texas, is a particularly troubling hot spot, according to a report by The Washington Post.

“The rapidly spreading instability in the Sahel threatens U.S. national security and undermines our diplomatic goals,” Whitney Baird, deputy assistant secretary of state for West Africa and security affairs, said at a congressional hearing this month.

“It enables the spread of terrorism, stifles economic growth and thwarts democratic institutions,” she said.

More than 100 soldiers have died in Mali since October in near-weekly clashes as the resource-strapped country tries to shake off a scourge that took root after the Libyan government collapsed in 2011.

Heavily armed mercenaries once employed by Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi streamed back to their native Mali, triggering a chain reaction of violence that regional security forces and international partners, including France, have since struggled to quash.

Militants with ties to the Daesh and al-Qaeda, meanwhile, have expanded their reach in Mali and Burkina Faso by provoking feuds between ethnic groups and offering to protect victims of the bloodshed they are stoking.

The terrorists “broke down systems that usually deal with intercommunity violence,” Dennis Hankins, the U.S. ambassador to Mali, told The Washington Post in October.

More than 800 civilians have died in the violence since January, up from about 574 in the previous year, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.

And at least 140,000 Malians have fled their homes this year, according to a fall report from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center — an almost sevenfold increase from the previous year.

Mali has sent a third of its armed forces into the country’s conflict-shaken center and north, where soldiers are supported by French and U.N. forces.

West African leaders have earmarked $1 billion over the next five years to fund the fight, but security analysts say the effort needs more assistance from the international community.