The refugees are all of the same mind: ‘Even if HCR (High Council for Refugees) forced us one day to return home, we would oppose ferociously to return to North of Timbuktu. » End 2014, the Malian ministers who came to preach the return home, had to run away from the wrath of refugees.
For Barakatou, president of the Women associations in M’berra, ‘to go back home is our main dream for the last four years. We left everything on the spot in our houses. Exile was not our choice. Conflict was huge where we left it; there were a lot of wounds among the people».
Director of a school Mohamed Ag Maouloud notes: «We as a people have always been victims; so, before we come back, we need a convincing agreement. If ever those who took arms don’t see their demands satisfied, I think there will be no conditions for us to return home».
A local elected official from Goundam fears that the return home would translate itself “with imprisonment, blind arrests and abuse led by the Malian military against nomadic tribes. The draft agreement from the Algerian mediators and the countries of the international community is an empty shell; it cannot calm movements who took arms. More importantly, what does this change for us, the people in exile? For instance, the persons who support Mali, like myself, we were the first ones to be victims of our own military. And even now, as we speak, there are arrests and abuse. And how do you want this problem to be solved once and for all? Myself, I think that the issue is still in the shadows in the morning”: in other words, conflict resolution is at its early stages.
Barakatou, president of the Women associations in M’berra, adds: «In this camp of M’berra, there is not one family of refugees which does not have a son, a nephew, a cousin, an uncle or a father standing weapons in arms on the front. Everyone here contributes with 2000 ouguiyas (5 euros) per month to help armed groups fighting the central state in Bamako. »
«This is not the territorial integrity of Mali that we don’t recognise. If a document is adopted by the movements now, it is like a crop lost after a full season of work. We, the women of M’berra; we won’t go home until tensions are not appeased first. We cannot stay and try to live between the bullets of the rebellion and those of the Malian army. It is like plaiting hair without first getting rid of lice. You know one will never stop scratching braided hair with lice until it is loose again’’, concludes Barakatou.
School director Mohamed Ag Maouloud comments: ‘’Today, no father or mother can prevent their son to join an armed group on the field, whether it is pro-Malian or pro-Azawad. Populations in North Mali are divided into several militias. I think that the famous Algiers document will not heal the divisions between our people from Northern Mali. Even here in camp, you have several zones, each belongs to a different movement, either for Mali, or in favour of Azawad, and these latter are the majority in this camp.»
Divided, do refugees find themselves well represented?
A staff from Médecins Sans Frontières opens his heart: « So many years we lived in the refugee camp. My heart is burning with desire for that situation to end. But to what price? Reconciliation and a durable, definitive agreement is what we want, that is the self determination of the people of Azawad in North Mali. Hence, even if populations, States, vested interests are pushing our leaders to sign or not to sign it; we will have the last word, us, the people. We hold the right to make ourselves heard and our aspirations satisfied. »
Enaderfé, who helps at the camp’ cybershop: « Are those who negotiate in Algiers representing s, or not? I say, they are representing us. The ideals our leaders incarnate in our movements; this is what is important for u”.
The UN force Minusma accompanied over 20 representatives from the camp to Nouakchott then Bamako and up to Kidal to take part to the discussions on the agreement. Some were in Algiers too. Many are ready to demand much more than what the document offers.Others are in favour of the document and the autonomy it offers.
Not all in M’berra camp rejects the Algiers document. There are those who think that the Bamako governement cannot concede more than what it already accepted. Ahmed Ag Mohamed Al Mokhtar, a refugee and former head of a municipality in North Mali, considers that « the Algerian proposal answers several demands of the population in North mali such as road building and improvement of living conditions ». Mohamed Al Mokhtar considers that « this agreement, if implemented, is a thousand times better than those earlier ».
But who will have the last word? One military boss of armed groups, freshly landed in M’berra from Hassi Labyad – the rebel base in Mali, next to the Mauritanian border - predicts total war against the central state of Bamako unless there is « full autonomy for the three regions of Azawad ». He threatens: « There will be war against Bamako, a war much more powerful than that which opposed Mali against jihadists’ militants. ».
