Med løfte om mindre skatter på dagligvarer, bedre job og gratis vand og elektricitet, vender tidligere flygtninge fra det nordlige Mali, der har levet i syd Mali, nu tilbage. Det skræmmer dem tilsyneladende ikke, at de risikerer at leve under Sharia loven.
BAMAKO, 18 October 2012 (IRIN) – Hundreds of displaced northerners in southern Mali are risking life under Sharia law to return home, lured by the prospect of jobs, free water and electricity, and in some parts, relatively cheaper food, Malians in the north and south told IRIN.
Islamist groups have removed taxes on many basic goods, say traders in the region, provide erratic electricity and water services at no charge, and have fixed the price of some basic foods.
They are also paying youths to join their ranks, as talk of intervention by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) mounts.
Busses are full
Gaoussou Traoré, a bus driver with Binké transport on the Bamako-Gao-Timbuktu route, said from March to June his buses were full of northerners fleeing south but now it is the opposite, with nearly empty buses heading south and all 52 seats packed heading north. “They are full every day,” he told IRIN.
Issa Mahamar, a French professor at the Yanna Maigo school in Gao, fled to Sevaré in central Mali in April to live with an uncle after the MNLA (National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad) Tuareg rebels took over, but recently returned to Gao in the Islamist-held north, partly due to the cost of living and also to protect his mother who never left.
“I also came because life is cheaper. There are no electricity or water bills… Before, I paid 15.000 and 8.000 CFA monthly (30 US dollar and 16 dollar) for my electricity and water but that is now free,” he said.
The same goes for cereals (kornprodukter), he said, noting that when the rebels and Islamists looted stores and World Food Programme warehouses they sold the food to locals at low prices, so city-dwellers stocked up.
“Imagine a sack of rice for 20.000 (40 dollar) – versus 40.000-50.000 (80-100 dollar) before?” he told IRIN.
Punished according to Sharia law
The price of a baguette of bread is now fixed at 200 CFA [the equivalent of 40 US cents] – down from 60, said locals, with Islamist brigades sent out to tour bakeries to make sure no one is flouting the prices.
“If they do, they are punished according to Sharia principles,” Tata Haidara, an ex-hotelier in Timbuktu, told IRIN.
The money to run power and water supplies and to pay would-be combatants is allegedly earned mainly through trafficking and hostage-taking, say analysts and locals.
Taking on basic services has not been smooth – supply is erratic, and some Islamist groups reportedly called on public sector workers to return to their old jobs to run them better.
“I got my house and my job back”
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http://www.irinnews.org/Report/96578/MALI-Islamists-lure-back-northerners
