MALI TOWN IS STILL SHAKY
Soldiers patrol Timbuktu with French forces after a weekend suicide bombing and fierce battles.
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — The weekend infiltration of Mali’s Timbuktu by Al Qaedalinked militants, who claimed responsibility for the assault Monday, showed the continued instability of the African nation months after French and Malian forces pushed back militias trying to extend their reach southward.
The attack started with a weekend suicide bombing on the outskirts of Timbuktu, followed by fierce battles Sunday between militants and military forces. On Monday, Malian and French forces were patrolling the city, conducting door-todoor searches for militants in some areas.
The attack came two months after Timbuktu was retaken from the extremists, who had imposed harsh religious law in the city, banning music, lashing accused adulterers and chopping off hands. Analysts say the renewed violence is a sign of the militants’ persistence after French and Malian forces routed them from northern cities.
“These are groups that are very good at existing in the desert under very harsh conditions. It’s hard to get rid of these kind of hit-andrun activities entirely,” said Jon Temin of the U.S. Institute of Peace.
French forces launched a military operation in Mali in January to help oust militants who had taken over the north of the country and implemented a severe form of Islamic law. French forces drove militias out of Timbuktu and other northern towns, but militants have since mounted guerrilla attacks and suicide bombings in Timbuktu and Gao.
The Al Qaeda-linked militias took over northern Mali last year, taking advantage of a power vacuum caused by a military coup. After the militias swept toward central Mali in January, threatening the town of Sevare, France answered a Malian government request for military assistance and warned that Mali had become a terrorist haven on Europe’s doorstep.
Islamic extremists have long said they wanted to draw the French into a war in the Sahara, said Gregory Mann, an associate professor of history at Columbia University who studies Mali. Doing battle with the French appears to have been good for recruitment.
Despite French talk of success, many Malians have not returned to areas they f led during the conf lict, Mann said. In addition, several Europeans remain hostage, and the militants may have recruited as many fighters as have been killed, he said. Besides averting the fall of Sevare, a strategic town that had been threatened by rebel advances, “it’s hard to find a clear measure by which the intervention is a success,” he said.
The frustrations of Tuareg separatists, who rebelled last year, and the imbalance in power and resources between north and south have yet to be addressed, experts say. The government remains shaky, and Human Rights Watch has repeatedly reported allegations of torture by Malian soldiers.
Elections are planned for July, but some analysts fear a new round of polling could destabilize the country even more.