Malian Government Protects Rebel Ethnic Groups but Sexual Violence Still Rampant

By Ted Townsend
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

BAMAKO, Mali – According to local Bamako police records, at least three hundred women are victims of sexual violence each year.  However, many people, including the president of the Bamako-based non-profit Women in Law and Development in Africa, say that the actual number is much higher.  According to the president, Sidibe Djenba Diop, “neither the Malian culture nor its laws recognize that rape is an act of violence against women.”

The reason for the rampant sexual violence, according to many, is the lack of application of the law in the field of sexual violence.  According to the president of a women’s legal clinic, “(h)armful traditions like female genital mutilation [FGM] and levirat, where a widow is required to marry her deceased husband's brother, are also acts of violence."

Elsewhere in Mali, officials have reported a number of government-made arrests against militia men accused of perpetrating violence against the ethnic Tuareg group.   However, rather than being content with the government’s crackdown, Tuaraeg human rights activists fear a backlash against their people.  Many fear the government searching for and arresting the militia will lead to heightened violence against their people. 

The Tuareg people have been demanding more rights for their people and have been engaging in a peace process with the Malian government.  Military sources say the “reining in” of Ganda Izo is designed to further the peace process.  However, many in the opposing faction believe these attempts by the government are just going to heighten the ethnic conflict in the country.

However, some see the arrests as a change in the Malian governmental philosophy.  Many believed that in the past the government had put its weight behind the militia in their attacks on the rebels.  However, according to sources, the times are turning:  "The people who brutally murdered four Tuaregs on 1 September were mistaken to think they would be protected by the state as they have been in the past. It is not the same era."

For more information, please see:

Afrika.no – Mali Niger: Insecurity Persists Despite Militia Leaders Arrest - 2 October 2008

IRIN –MALI: Violence Against Women on Rise – 2 October 2008

Reuters – Niger arrests Mali Militia After Killings – 28 September 2008