ASC-075287668-2887-01

REBELLION: AL-JEBHA 289the Western press (‘Mysterious Timbuktu scene of ethnic violence’...) but exceptfor French international radio station RFI, the world was too absorbed bythe Rwanda genocide to notice anything else going on in Africa.In reprisal for Ganda Koy attacks and pogroms, the FIAA and FPLA starteda campaign of counter terror. On 1 July 1994 the FIAA attacked the villages ofBintangoungou, Biragoungou and Tenenkou, killing eight people. The villageof Soumpi followed with twelve victims. On 17 July rebels attacked the roadbetween Niono and Nampala. In return, the Army killed seventeen Kel Tamasheqin Nampala itself the same day. The severest FIAA attack came on 25 Julyat the village of Bamba. That day was market day in Bamba. The well-visitedmarket is held at a crossroads. Camel mounted FIAA elements approached themarket from all four roads and simply opened fire, leaving forty people dead. 66In October 1994, the FIAA executed an elaborated series of attacks on the armybase at Gao and the Ganda Koy leaders of the town. On 20 October 20 1994FIAA fighters attacked the army post at Ansongo, forty kilometres from Gao,with the purpose of drawing troops from the Gao garrison to Ansongo, which itdid. On the evening of 22 October the FIAA attacked Gao itself. In an attemptto draw the soldiers out of their barracks, a number of fighters entered the cityat night, shooting at random, setting fire to two petrol stations belonging toGanda Koy founder Ali Bady Maïga, destroying a pharmacy and shooting at thebarges on the Niger River. Another unit laid in ambush to intercept the Maliansoldiers when they left the camp. However, the soldiers remained in their camponly to come outside when the FIAA fighters aborted their attack under theassault of an assembled Ganda Koy crowd. The next day, pogroms against thefew remaining Bidân and Tamasheq in Gao followed. A crowd of Gaois andsoldiers left for the nearby village of Inelfiss founded by the fraction Kel Essuq,Kel Takailalt. This village of ineslemen or religious specialists served as azawiya, a religious centre of the Qâdiriyya Sufi brotherhood. The inhabitantswere former nomads who had settled to promote religious learning and topractice agriculture. The village head, leader of the zawiya and tribal chiefMohamed Anara ag Hamadou was among the most respected Muslim scholarsand civil community leaders of the region. Many inhabitants of Gao had soughthis advice on religious matters. Nevertheless, on the accusation of having givenhospitality to the FIAA unit the evening before their attack, the enraged crowdkilled Mohamed Anara and fifty other villagers, while the Malian soldiers stood66‘Tueries sauvages au Nord’, Union, 05/08/1994.