Quantcast
Channel: ReliefWeb Updates
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 14548

Mali: She wants to create security in Mali

0
0
Source: DanChurchAid
Country: Mali

Feeling insecure is a feeling that Fatoumata Maiga knows all too well. Today the 25 year old mother works to increase security for the people in central Mali

The bus left Sévaré in central Mali around noon, but already near a small town just 25 km. away it was stopped by armed security forces. The authorities had forbidden men in that area from travelling with public transport to the capital, Bamako, so there were almost only women and children on the bus, but also one single man had tried to escape Sévaré.

The security forces didn’t trust anyone. All men could be Jihadis.

Fatoumata Maiga saw the man be pulled off the bus, while the soldiers pointed at him with their guns. A woman cried, out of herself:

“Don’t take my brother, don’t take my brother. He isn’t a Jihadi.”

A man got shot

25 year old Madam Fatoumata Maiga had had to leave her husband in Sévaré, even though the town was in a state of panic.

100 meters from the bus stop, five people had been killed shortly before the bus left, and another man was thrown to the ground down and shot in front of the passengers when the bus left the station.

“His body jumped up and down,” says Fatoumata, and pushes her chest in and out to show what it looked like when the shots hit the man.

The panic was due to the armed Jihadis from the North who had overtaken large parts of Mali in record time and now were only 45 minutes from Sévaré. People who were suspected of being Jihadis lived dangerously.

Fatoumata had her two children with her in the bus. One of them was an infant; the oldest was almost two years old. Fatoumata’s little sister, sister-in-law and the sister-in-law’s children were also along.

“We didn’t know if we would ever get to Bamako,” she said.

Armed Violence Reduction

Part of DanChurchAid's programme in Mali is about Armed Violence Reduction - reducing armed violence, which prevent development in the country.

A large survey has been conducted showing that small arms are widespread in Mali, and the population do not trust the authorities to guarantee security following the armed conflict in 2012 and 2013.

DanChurchAid is engaging with communities and trying to find solutions to problems such as road robberies and conflicts between farmers and cattle breeders. Part of the solution is to restore confidence in the authorities.

No trust in authorities

Fortunately the family arrived in the capital after dark.

Today it is two years since Fatoumata had to leave her husband and flee to the capital. The French military intervened shortly afterward and the Jihadis were forced to retreat.

Today, Fatoumata is back in Sévaré, but that doesn’t mean, unfortunately, that all is well in Mopti Province. Even though the Jihadis are gone, the lack of security for the population is still a problem. A lot of weapons were left behind by the Jihadis when they fled, and the civil population has unfortunately often chosen to collect them.

They don’t trust the authorities to protect them, as they have seen with their own eyes that soldiers dropped their weapons and fled when the Jihadis arrived.

That is why they choose to protect themselves.

People buy weapons for both self-defense and hunting, but sales have fallen since the conflict in 2013 because of all the cheap industry produced weapons in circulation.

Weapons causes insecurity

The many weapons in circulation have created problems with road robbery. At the same time, old conflicts about access to land and to water for grazing cattle now develop with fatal consequences.

That is why DanChurchAid has a project to increase security in the region. That’s the project that Fatoumata has been a part of since it started in April last year. She works in a team of employees who, in close cooperation with the local communities try to improve security. The project is about having a dialogue with the communities in order to find solutions.

“After the conflict I wanted to work on the armed violence and DanChurchAid the only NGO that works with it in the area. I want to help so we together can create a better community,” she says.

The work requires Fatoumata to be away from her family for a month or two at a time, which was a problem especially at the beginning, when her son was very little and couldn’t do without his mother. That’s why she chose to take her son into the field with her.

“I work for such an important cause that I think that it was worthwhile to have to have him with me,” she says.

Together we can create security

In Mali the women often stay at home with the family while the men work, but Fatoumata has a husband who understands his wife’s need to do something for the community.

“I am a women with a family, so it is very satisfying that I can help anyway,” she says.

Today Fatoumata sits in her house in Sévaré and thinks back to the bus trip to Bamako at the beginning of 2013. The man who was pulled out of the bus and suspected of being a Jihadi showed his ID card and fortunately was allowed to get back on the bus again.

The French forces pressed the Jihadis back before Sévaré was taken, and her husband wasn’t hurt. The Jihadis still create major problems in northern Mali, but in Mopti Province it is more peaceful. If only it could be absolutely safe there would be a basis for more development in the area says Fatoumata.

“People feel so vulnerable, but together we can create security,” she says.

You can read more about the security projects in Mali here.


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 14548

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images