UN Expert Alioune Tine reported on Tuesday that the human rights situation in Mali is of grave concern and that the country needs a comprehensive strategy to tackle it. Tine urged an effective military response to stop the violence and protect the population.

Violence caused by armed extremist groups and by Malian and international security forces fighting back has created a “deep sense of fear and insecurity” in the country. Many villages are being embargoed by jihadists preventing locals from participating in commerce and agriculture and leading to food insecurity and hunger.

There have been more serious violations of human rights as well, with allegations of “extrajudicial executions, abductions, torture, ill-treatment and illegal detention,” all done with impunity.

In December 807 schools remained closed due to the insecurity. Members of Jama’at nustrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM), al Qaeda’s branch in Mali, have been threatening secular state-run schools.

This situation has been ongoing. The country went through a “political-military crisis” from 2012-2013 but efforts to bring peace stalled in 2017. Al Qaeda-related groups have executed accused government informants and many local government officials. These groups are increasingly implementing Sharia law and establishing courts without fair standards.

In 2017 23 UN peacekeepers with a stabilization mission were killed and 103 wounded, which made for a total of 92 peacekeepers killed since the mission was founded in 2013.