Protection of civilians in Mali must have priority! No more financial support for Islamists!

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) demands that the protection of the civilian population must have absolute priority in case of an international military intervention against the terrorist movement al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI) and against their radical Islamist allies in northern Mali. "But it is now most important to intensify efforts to prevent the financing of the terrorist network. It cannot be tolerated any longer, that local authorities, the police, soldiers and even senior officers do business with radical Islamists – not only in Mali, but also in neighboring countries," said Ulrich Delius, the STP's expert on questions regarding Africa, in Göttingen on Tuesday. "It is also very important that the states of the European Union stop paying ransom money in cases of kidnapping or hostage taking."

In Mali's capital city Bamako, international defense experts are now discussing a strategy for a military intervention in northern Mail against the AQMI and their allies, who control two thirds of the national territory of Mali. In the last few months, several Tuareg civilians had been attacked and killed by army helicopters because they were mistaken for rebels. The STP also fears that a drone war in the Sahara bears the risk that nomads, travelers and traders will get killed by mistake, because they often travel in small groups.

"Only about 500 of the approximately 6,000 fighters of AQMI, the 'Movement for the unity of the Jihad in West Africa' (MUJAO) and 'Ansar Dine' are are radical Islamists," said Delius. The other fighters are merely followers who joined the terrorist movements mostly for financial reasons. According to information of the STP, the radical Islamists use money from kidnappings, drug trades and from smuggling people and weapons to recruit new fighters from the impoverished and desperate population of northern Mali.

Currently, the AQMI demands 100 million Euros ransom money for the release of four kidnapped Frenchmen. MUJAO is supposed to have received 15 million Euros for the release of three hostages from Spain and Italy in July 2012. It is suspected that Germany and Austria paid several millions of Euros to set hostages free since 2002.