MALI: Bamako residents pray for peace during Friday prayers as Malian and French army regain ground in the north

Record ID: 862730

  • Title: MALI: Bamako residents pray for peace during Friday prayers as Malian and French army regain ground in the north
  • Date: 25th January 2013
  • Summary: BLIND WOMAN BEGGING
  • Embargoed: 9th February 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mali
  • City:
  • Country: Mali
  • Topics: Conflict,Politics,Population
  • Reuters ID: LVAASJ90TKFVDW5KV80BYJQAAD90
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  • Story Text: As French-backed Mali government forces regained territories in the north of the country, Bamako residents prayed on Friday (January 25) for peace to return.
    Worshippers said they only wanted law, justice and peace.
    "Of course we regret this because we need law and justice to be respected. We regret the incidents that took place with the people in the north," Bamako resident Mamadou said.
    "I wish peace for everyone," another Bamako resident from the Peul ethnic said.
    Two weeks after France sent troops and aircraft into its West African former colony to block an offensive south by al Qaeda-allied Islamists occupying the north, Mali's army was now on the move as Islamist fighters pulled back from towns.
    Malian officials government forces entered Hombori, about 160 km (100 miles) from Gao, late on Thursday, and an offensive against Gao further north could take place in the next days.
    Mali's vast desert north has been occupied since last year by an Islamist alliance that includes AQIM, the North African franchise of al Qaeda.
    Malians usually celebrate a local Sufi version of Islam, which is anathema to Islamists like the Ansar Dine fighters - Defenders of the Faith - who adhere to Salafism, which is linked to the Wahhabi puritanical branch of Sunni Islam found in Saudi Arabia.
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