{"id":930,"date":"2010-03-09T18:57:47","date_gmt":"2010-03-09T23:57:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/delicious.com\/url\/7abd4163da06d521066f83d83d3109c2#tomathon"},"modified":"2010-03-13T18:15:06","modified_gmt":"2010-03-13T23:15:06","slug":"mali-bandits-attack-truck-on-gao-ansago-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2010\/03\/mali-bandits-attack-truck-on-gao-ansago-road\/","title":{"rendered":"Mali: &#8216;Bandits&#8217; attack truck on Gao &#8211; Ansago road"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Unidentified armed men attacked a truck carrying goods and passengers on the Niger river road from Gao to Ansago on Monday.  The truck&#8217;s driver was killed, several wounded, and the bandits made off with cash and property. This was somewhere between 100 and 200 km west northwest of the attack on a Nigerien military post that same morning, and more than 300 km south of the carjacking of two aid workers near <a class=\"zem_slink freebase\/en\/kidal\" href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?ll=18.4333333333,1.4&amp;spn=0.1,0.1&amp;q=18.4333333333,1.4%20%28Kidal%29&amp;t=h\" title=\"Kidal\" rel=\"geolocation\">Kidal<\/a> last week.  See my comments on the carjacking for a summary of what I think is going on (short answer guns + poverty + demobed insurgency + corruption = crime). Please leave your Bin Laden fantasies at the door.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Follow up:<\/strong> (2010-03-13)<\/p>\n<p>An anonymous commentator on the  Kidal.info message board poses these details: &#8220;The attack is locally attributed to <a class=\"zem_slink freebase\/en\/fula_people\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fula_people\" title=\"Fula people\" rel=\"wikipedia\">Peul<\/a> individuals. The truck is owned by Ely Ould Hennoun an Arab trader who resides in Bamako. A young Arab died (the driver) and a <a class=\"zem_slink freebase\/en\/tuareg\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tuareg\" title=\"Tuareg\" rel=\"wikipedia\">Tuareg<\/a> who accompanied him was seriously wounded in the head. &#8230; The killers stole two Thuraya satellite phones and the small sum of about 25,000 FCFA  [~ 38 Euros]&#8230; This at the cost of two lives.&#8221;   <\/p>\n<p>I haven&#8217;t the vaguest clue if the ethnic insinuations are true, and it would be sad should the Gao-ites be overly concerned about ethnic identity in this sort of crime.  But it speaks to the general insecurity and the desperate straits of northern Mali, that someone would kill for a handful of goods.  It certainly doesn&#8217;t suggest that everyone there is flush with drug money.<\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;\" class=\"zemanta-pixie\"><img style=\"border: medium none; float: right;\" class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.zemanta.com\/pixy.gif?w=560\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"><span class=\"zem-script more-info pretty-attribution\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/static.zemanta.com\/readside\/loader.js\" defer=\"defer\"><\/script><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unidentified armed men attacked a truck carrying goods and passengers on the Niger river road from Gao to Ansago on Monday.  The truck&#8217;s driver was killed, several wounded, and the bandits made off with cash and property. This was somewhere between 100 and 200 km west northwest of the attack on a Nigerien military post that same morning, and more than 300 km south of the carjacking of two aid workers near <a class=\"zem_slink freebase\/en\/kidal\" href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?ll=18.4333333333,1.4&amp;spn=0.1,0.1&amp;q=18.4333333333,1.4%20%28Kidal%29&amp;t=h\" title=\"Kidal\" rel=\"geolocation\">Kidal<\/a> last week.  See my comments on the carjacking for a summary of what I think is going on (short answer guns + poverty + demobed insurgency + corruption = crime). Please leave your Bin Laden fantasies at the door.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Follow up:<\/strong> (2010-03-13)<\/p>\n<p>An anonymous commentator on the  Kidal.info message board poses these details: &#8220;The attack is locally attributed to <a class=\"zem_slink freebase\/en\/fula_people\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fula_people\" title=\"Fula people\" rel=\"wikipedia\">Peul<\/a> individuals. The truck is owned by Ely Ould Hennoun an Arab trader who resides in Bamako. A young Arab died (the driver) and a <a class=\"zem_slink freebase\/en\/tuareg\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tuareg\" title=\"Tuareg\" rel=\"wikipedia\">Tuareg<\/a> who accompanied him was seriously wounded in the head. &#8230; The killers stole two Thuraya satellite phones and the small sum of about 25,000 FCFA  [~ 38 Euros]&#8230; This at the cost of two lives.&#8221;   <\/p>\n<p>I haven&#8217;t the vaguest clue if the ethnic insinuations are true, and it would be sad should the Gao-ites be overly concerned about ethnic identity in this sort of crime.  But it speaks to the general insecurity and the desperate straits of northern Mali, that someone would kill for a handful of goods.  It certainly doesn&#8217;t suggest that everyone there is flush with drug money.<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2010\/03\/mali-bandits-attack-truck-on-gao-ansago-road\/\">Read more &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[107,174],"tags":[249,322,350,345,215],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1690,"url":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2010\/04\/niger-another-kidnap-in-the-north-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":930,"position":0},"title":"Niger: Another kidnap in the north","date":"April 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The French press is reporting that a French tourist and an Algerian guide were kidnapped by armed men today in northern Niger, near the well at In-Abangaret. Also spelled Inabangaret, it's a stopping place on the Azzouagh plain's Tahoua\/Assamakka\/Tama...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blog&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":919,"url":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2010\/03\/niger-military-post-raided-on-mali-border\/","url_meta":{"origin":930,"position":1},"title":"Niger: Military post raided on Mali border","date":"March 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Reports are coming in of an attack by unknown assailants on the army post at Tiloa, a village around 12km from the Malian border. Several soldiers were killed. North of the more inhabited Zarmaganda plateau, Tiola is a tiny stop in the desert north of Tondikiwindi rural commune, Ouallam Department,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blog&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1651,"url":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2012\/01\/french-papers-mali-mig-evidence-is-photo-of-a-truck\/","url_meta":{"origin":930,"position":2},"title":"Mali: French papers&#8217; Mali MIG evidence is photo of a truck","date":"January 28, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Malian rebels and French press like Le Monde have claimed MNLA fighters shot down a Malian jet. Here's evidence it was a hoax.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Afrique&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Capturelemonde1.png?fit=376%2C371&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":876,"url":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2010\/03\/mali-crime-and-guns-in-the-north-threaten-health-work\/","url_meta":{"origin":930,"position":3},"title":"Mali: Crime and guns in the north threaten health work","date":"March 3, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"M\u00e9decins du Monde Belgium reports that three of their health workers were carjacked in the desert north of Youwarou Cercle, Kidal Region on 2 March. Men armed with AK-47s stole a landrover and abandoned the workers in the desert. The MMB workers were part of a anti-Dracunculiasis (Guinea Worm) clinic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blog&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2115,"url":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2013\/12\/looking-for-cocaine-terrorists-the-2009-us-drugs-sting-in-mali\/","url_meta":{"origin":930,"position":4},"title":"Looking For Cocaine Terrorists: The 2009 US Drugs Sting in Mali.","date":"December 2, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This story originally appeared in Maghreb Politics Review on December 21, 2009, as \"US Arrests Malians in Terror Drugs 'Link'\". The claim that Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, and the FARC are part of a worldwide drugs for terror conspiracy remains active in American press and government, and remains a fantasy that meets\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Featured&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/800px-Carcass_Sahara_Algeria.jpg?fit=800%2C533&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1712,"url":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2010\/03\/mali-truck-drivers-strike-severs-commerce-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":930,"position":5},"title":"Mali: Truck drivers strike severs commerce","date":"March 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"It has been 6 days since (on 10 March) the a variety of formal and informal unions of Malian inter-city truck drivers went on strike, shutting down the transport of people and goods. While Bamako\/Koulikoro and points northwest are served by rail from ...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blog&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1mYFK-f0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=930"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":959,"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930\/revisions\/959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}