7 on the "Timbuktu", a boat carrying soldiers and residents from Gao. Hundreds of survivors were brought to the city after a JNIM attack on Sept. "Things are going from bad to worse," said market trader Mohamed Massaya. Residents wary of falling rockets avoid markets and a nightly curfew empties the streets. Traders in the city say sugar is up 25%, while charcoal for cooking, potatoes and onions are up 30%. Food and other supplies are blocked, driving up prices for essentials. Timbuktu, a centuries-old centre of Islamic learning, is now under siege. That doesn't mean they are in lock step, but they can communicate," Shurkin said. JNIM's leader Iyad Ag-Ghali is a former Tuareg rebel. There is no evidence the groups coordinate, security experts said. "JNIM and CMA have freedom of movement over the entire area." "The problem is Mali has too few troops and too little mobility," said Michael Shurkin, director of global programs at 14 North Strategies consultancy. The army calls CMA fighters "terrorists".Īl Qaeda-affiliated Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) raided other military camps, attacked an airport, fired on passenger boats and launched its blockade of Timbuktu. The group laid down arms in 2015 under a U.N.-brokered deal but says the army has encroached on its territory and says these are "times of war". Since then, CMA has attacked other Malian army bases, some hundreds of miles apart. In Mali, fighting began in August between the army and an ethnic Tuareg group called the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) around a base vacated by the U.N. France said last week it would pull out troops from Niger. Insecurity has spawned coups whose leaders have jilted regional and Western states.
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