Part of their hearts and minds campaign?
(Magharebia) — Residents of the north Malian city of Gao are vowing to protest the Islamist occupiers’ brutal practices.
A fortnight after the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) imposed their strict punishment on a thief in Ansongo, the al-Qaeda offshoot on Tuesday (August 21st) threatened to amputate the hands of another 60 people.
“These repeated criminal practices will only make the people more determined to renounce terrorism and the rule of strangers, as the three-month rule of those criminal gangs has changed the lifestyle of Touaregs, who were forced by poverty and inability to escape to stay in the area,” said Touareg activist Nina Walet Ntalo, a minister in the government of the unilaterally declared state of Azawad.
“These behaviours are enough for the entire world, not just Touaregs, to act,” she told Magharebia.
The alleged thief who lost his hand in Assongo died a week later, malijet.com reported. Two days after, his mother passed away from a heart attack, Moussa Ag Chrouga, a resident of Ansongo, told Magharebia.
“The young man couldn’t bear the amputation of right hand, and his wound didn’t respond to the poor treatment which was provided by the poorly-equipped health point in Ansongo, which was represented in a simple splint, some simple pain killers and antibiotics, and therefore, bled to death,” Ag Chrouga said.