Amaury HAUCHARD -
Behind the stage looming over the banks of the Niger River, there came worrying information: militants were poised to attack Mali’s most important cultural festival.
On stage, everything was calm. Officials lined up to give speeches to usher in the much-loved event while relaxed-looking security guards looked on. But behind the scenes, security chiefs were on the alert. And the calls were stacking up on the mobile phone of Commander Diallo, an official from Mali’s security ministry.
Now in its 16th year, Segou’Art Festival on the Niger is Mali’s largest cultural event, a haven of theatre and music in a rising tide of war. It is staged in the town of Segou in central Mali — a region that is now the epicentre of a militant revolt that began more than seven years ago. In 2019, militant groups killed over 450 civilians in central Mali alone, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said this week.
That figure does not include soldiers and police officers whom militants have been slaughtering by the dozen in recent months.
Commander Diallo — his full name has been retained for security reasons — had his work cut out to keep the festival running safely. His eyes were fixed on the far bank of the Niger, watching for any threat. Two patrol boats were sent there, sirens blaring. A dozen soldiers disembarked and fanned out on the far bank, “to dissuade any one who might want to come there,” an officer said.
Unfazed by the risk, tens of thousands of Malians attend Segou’Art every year. The event ran from February 4-9 this year, covering everything from lectures, to theatre, dance, music and traditional storytelling. Foreign tourists used to regularly attend too.
Today, they are now nowhere to be seen, for the threat to their lives has never been greater.
Ten days before the festival began, 20 soldiers were gunned down by about 100 motorbike-riding militants, some 100 kilometres north of Segou. Near the site of that attack, three policemen were also killed during an overnight ambush on Sunday morning, just as rappers were entertaining thousands of young Malians at Segou’Art.
Authorities had their eyes peeled for an attempt on the festival.
Security measures were put in place and reinforcements sent from the capital Bamako — “enough to secure the festival,” according to Biramou Sissoko, the governor of Mali’s Segou region.
Details, including the number of men requisitioned, remain secret. But several hundred uniformed men were visible in the town during the festival, an AFP journalist saw, and the country’s counterterrorism squad was dispatched from the capital Bamako.
“The threat is everywhere and nowhere,” said Malick Doumbia, a festival-goer who had travelled from Bamako. — AFP
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