Mali fighting displaces nearly 40,000, sources say

Nearly 40,000 people have fled their homes in northern and central Mali after a surge in clashes and bombardments, humanitarian, local and security sources said Tuesday.

A social development official said “nearly 40,000 people” had been displaced, with around 15,000 taking refuge in the Gao and Menaka regions. In Gao, the largest city in northern Mali, a local official reported more than 7,000 newly displaced people over the past three months.

A humanitarian NGO official said thousands had arrived in towns such as Gao and Menaka after the events of April 25 and recent clashes around Anefis. The sources said most people reaching Gao and Menaka came from the Kidal region as the situation there deteriorated.

Attacks in Mali have intensified since a major April offensive by a coalition of jihadists and separatists that took the northern city of Kidal and killed the country's defence minister. In early July, the Tuareg separatist FLA and the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, known as JNIM, briefly captured Anefis.

A security source said Mali's army had intensified aerial bombardments over the past two weeks in areas including Tinzawatene in the Kidal region, often destroying health centres and causing more displacement.

Mali has faced a security crisis since 2012 and has more than 400,000 displaced people, although that figure is widely considered an underestimate. The country has been ruled by the military since coups in 2020 and 2021.