This week, RFI offers you a series of four reports on the unparalleled ceasefire agreement reached on March 14 over a one-month period between the jihadists in Katiba Macina, linked to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and the Dozo fighters who confronted them try to protect some villages, especially Farabougou, in the district of Nionos (region Ségou). The Malian state, which mandated the negotiators, still has to comment at the end of the week on a specific point in this agreement.
“He’s fifteen days old,” the young woman explains, discovering an infant installed on linen at the back of the room. “He was born here, in Ségou. Not home. “It has been three months since Fatoumata Sangaré (for security reasons, the names have been changed and the displaced villages of origin are not specified) fled her village in the Niono circle. She, her husband, co-wife and their children are forced into a small, dusty apartment.
“We left our village because we saw Dozo hunters coming to kill people from our family, in their house. It has happened several times. So we decided to go before accident also happened to us. In our village there are Peuls and Bambaras. But Dozos only killed Fulani, says Fatoumata Sangaré.
Prior to the ceasefire agreement, traditional Dozo hunters and Katiba Macinase jihadists clashed for more than six months. Civilians bore the brunt of these clashes, which overlapped with old inter-municipal rivalries.
Yacouba Traoré comes from another village. It is the presence of the jihadists that forced him to leave with his family. “I was scared because of the jihadists,” he said. “That’s why I fled. They do not tolerate anything, if they see you they will kill you. They asked women to wear the veil. I am a farmer. One day when I was out on “They came to the fields to attack us. They forbade us to go to our plots, so we had to stay in the village without doing anything.”
For six months, 120 households, more than 700 people, have left their village in the Niono circle to take refuge in Ségou. Figures that do not take into account the displaced persons who have gone to other places and which are delivered by Imadel. Involved in dialogue between municipalities, this Malian NGO provides psychological and social support to displaced persons and facilitates their access to care.
The Niono agreement, between Dozos and jihadists, Fatoumata Sangaré was not even aware of. Yacouba Traoré, he is waiting to see. “No, I have not heard of it,” Fatoumata Sangaré assures. “But if the Dozo hunters stop killing, we will go home. We have our cattle and half the family stayed in the village. Our wish is to return, if the war ends, that live together. “” It is true that there was an agreement, explains Yacouba Traoré, but it is still too early for the moment. I’m not very sure. Conflicts can always arise … I do not know. “
Since the Niono agreement was reached, the violence has ceased. But the state authorities still have to decide on one last point, which has remained in tension: the jihadists are demanding that Malian soldiers leave the village of Farabougou.
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