Malian youths clashed with ruling Islamists in the city of Gao in a protest against the planned punishment by amputation of a suspected robber and the beating of a journalist covering the demonstration, local residents said.
The unrest followed the fatal stoning by Islamists of a couple accused of adultery and pointed to growing resistance to the imposition of Shariah (Islamic law) by Islamist gunmen in control of Mali’s north.
Demonstrations by hundreds of young people went on well past nightfall in Gao on Sunday, ending when Islamists fired into the air to scatter the crowds, residents said on Monday.
“The protests lasted all yesterday and continued very late into the night,” said Kader Toure, a local journalist.
“The [Islamists] wanted to apply Shariah to a young thief — they wanted to chop his arm off. But the population rejected this and the youths came out to Independence Square to oppose it. The Islamists delayed the punishment and fired in the air to disperse them,” Toure said.
A hospital source said six people were injured in the disturbances, including Malick Aliou Maiga, another local journalist who was beaten up by Islamist gunmen after speaking out on air about the planned amputation.
Oumar Baba Maiga, a Gao resident, said hundreds of youths were on the streets after nightfall.
“It was a human tide. Everyone went out onto the streets as the [attack on Maiga] took place live on air,” he said.
Gao is mainly controlled by Islamist group MUJWA, which alongside Ansar Dine and AQIM, al-Qaeda’s North African wing, have hijacked a rebellion initially started by secular, independence-seeking Taureg rebels.
The three groups now jointly occupy the northern two-thirds of the West African country.
Both the Malian government and regional states, fretting that Mali’s north has become a safe haven for extremists and criminal groups, remain powerless to take on the Islamists.
“We don’t care about secularism, democracy, the international community or others. People must accept that we will impose Shariah whether they like it or not. It is not tramps like journalists who are going to stop us,” said Oumar Ould Hamaha, a fighter who said he was speaking as a MUJWA spokesman.
MINERAL DEPOSITS: The Pacific nation is looking for new foreign partners after its agreement with Canada’s Metals Co was terminated ‘mutually’ at the end of last year Pacific nation Kiribati says it is exploring a deep-sea mining partnership with China, dangling access to a vast patch of Pacific Ocean harboring coveted metals and minerals. Beijing has been ramping up efforts to court Pacific nations sitting on lucrative seafloor deposits of cobalt, nickel and copper — recently inking a cooperation deal with Cook Islands. Kiribati opened discussions with Chinese Ambassador Zhou Limin (周立民) after a longstanding agreement with leading deep-sea mining outfit The Metals Co fell through. “The talk provides an exciting opportunity to explore potential collaboration for the sustainable exploration of the deep-ocean resources in Kiribati,” the government said
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
The head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, was sacked yesterday, days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he no longer trusts him, and fallout from a report on the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. “The Government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to end ISA Director Ronen Bar’s term of office,” a statement said. He is to leave his post when his successor is appointed by April 10 at the latest, the statement said. Netanyahu on Sunday cited an “ongoing lack of trust” as the reason for moving to dismiss Bar, who joined the agency in 1993. Bar, meant to
RSS