When France sent soldiers to its former colony Mali last month, Malta’s small Malian community rejoiced.
“That was the first thing that made us happy in months. No one else was going to end the war. The French saved our families’ lives,” said Ali Konate, 28.
Answering a plea from Mali’s President, France intervened militarily in its former colony on January 11 to halt the advance of Islamist and Tuareg insurgents from the north.
The Tuaregs have long sought an independent northern state, while the Islamists seek to impose strict Sharia law in Mali and beyond.
Sitting in his Swatar apartment, Mr Konate’s mind wandered thousands of miles to his relatives in his home country.
An activist with the Migrants Network for Equality in Malta, Mr Konate spoke to his older brother Omar in the Malian capital Bamako last week.
“Even in Bamako there is not much security. People are afraid of what will happen. If the Islamists had taken Sévaré, they would have continued to Bamako, no one could have stopped them.”
Pride of place in his living room is a photo of his family matriarch who is over 100 years old. The woman, known to all her family as ‘Ma’, is living in Ségou, the place of Mr Konate’s birth and the main town between Sévaré and the capital.
“I was very worried about her. If the rebels had come, she would have been too old to run away,” Mr Konate said.
Yesterday French President François Hollande visited the fabled city of Timbuktu, which had been occupied by the Islamists just a week earlier.
After committing more than 3,500 troops to Mali, France has succeeded in its efforts to stop the rebels’ advance southwards and to retake towns formerly under Islamist control.
Malian forces and troops from other West African countries are expected to take over security duties in the coming weeks, but Mr Konate hopes the French will remain for the time being.
“I don’t think they can leave right now. I cannot imagine all the rebels have disappeared – they are either running or mixing with the people. If the French leave, they could return.”
Mr Konate pointed out that Mali had been seeking help for a long time.
“The West African Union (ECOWAS) promised to help but were always delaying. For me, I felt they would only help us when our country was already destroyed.”
Asked about reports that Malian government forces were committing torture and extra-judicial killings of suspected rebels and rebel-sympathisers, Mr Konate said he hoped they were not true.
“Unfortunately the problems between the Mali Government and Tuareg are not new – they have been there for decades and when the Tuaregs joined with the Islamists it made things worse.”
But he was hopeful that reconciliation could be achieved, pointing out that Tuaregs in the past have occupied high positions in the Government and security forces.
“Hopefully, it can be like that again. Everyone should be treated the same,” Mr Konate said, adding that the Malian Government and security forces needed to weed out corruption and do more to aid development in the north.
Last week UNHCR Malta reported that Malian asylum-seekers currently in detention had expressed their fears for their families back home.
“Our families can’t sleep, can’t eat because they are afraid rebels would come to their houses and kill them,” one of them said.
UNHCR estimates that as many as 700,000 Malians may be forced to flee their homes in the coming months.
pcooke@timesofmalta.com