On 8 March, a message1 posted on twitter announced fighting east of Menaka, in Tamalat, between EIGS jihadists and the MSA. The EIGS2 then managed to take control of Tamalat. The next day, massacres of civilians3 in Tamalat were reported: teenagers and elderly people were killed. The MSA then managed to retake Tamalat.

Then the EIGS attacked Inchinanane4 , southwest of Tamalat, a town under the control of the MSA. A message on twitter warned of the risk of a new massacre of civilians if the EIGS managed to take Inchinanane. Shortly afterwards, the EIGS seized5 the town. At 2pm, the EIGS managed to regain control6 of Tamalat. A post on 10 March revealed that the EIGS had launched a second attack on Tamalat while the MSA was burying7 the civilians massacred on 9 March.

On 5 March, the EIGS had issued a fatwa8 against the Doushak community, inciting them to kill them and take their property: the herds of families south of Tamalat were then stolen, and on 8 March the civilians of Tamalat were attacked. On 9 March, more than 60 deaths9 are reported.

In Inchinanane, the EIGS launched a new attack on the 9th at 5pm and retook the town from the MSA. 11 civilians are massacred10 by the EIGS. On 10 March the EIGS looted and burned Inchinanane, the bodies of 10 civilians11 were found.

72 hours after the start of these attacks, civilians, women and children, continue to flee on foot towards Menaka, without any reaction12 from the Malian authorities. MINUSMA is called to account for not having protected the massacred population and not supporting the refugees.

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On 11 March the refugees arrived in Ménaka: a tweet to OCHA and UNHCR13 alerted them to the need for support.

If the Touareg communities have not received any protection from the FAMA, and the Malian authorities have not supported the refugees, it is also surprising that the Malian press has not mentioned the massacres of the civilian populations of Tamalt and Inchinanane. This silence on the part of the Bamako media is consistent with the takeover of the media by the DIRPA, which we reported, which aims to enlist journalists in its information operations designed to praise the successes of the FAMA: obviously, talking about the absence of the FAMA during these massacres does not fit into these specifications.

On the other hand, despite several messages alerting the Western media, no article was published. It is exactly on this type of media non-return that the media vectoring Russian propaganda such as RT or Sputnik have been able to thrive for years. It was not until the 11th that only Wassim Nasr14 spoke about these massacres on France24. If Wassim Nasr had recently been criticised on social media by local actors, the fact that he covers these massacres while the Bamako press remains silent should silence his detractors... Unless they are part of the anti-Touareg movement in Bamako that rejoices in the defeat of the MSA by the EIGS and justifies the lack of FAMA reaction.

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These massacres and the lack of FAMA support put the Malian junta in a difficult situation: the inability and unwillingness of FAMA to protect civilians despite efforts touted by the press at the request of DIRPA would in itself justify the independence of the people of Azawad. This inability also undermines the junta's strategy of superseding Barkhane with Russian fighters. And this incapacity is likely to persist due to Ukraine colonisation, which compels Russia to relocate its various fighters from Africa to Ukraine: the consequence is that in these conditions, Russians will probably not be able to provide more than a presidential guard to the Malian junta, to the detriment of the populations.