Grief and Displacement Bind Refugee Women in Mali’s Crisis
Among the thousands who have fled Mali since the start of an armed extremist uprising over a decade ago, one group shares a tragic link: their husbands are missing, presumed dead or captured.
Amina (a pseudonym) is among them.
The 50-year-old’s husband was a gendarme who fought against extremist forces. Now, in Mbera, a Mauritanian camp across the border hosting over 120,000 refugees, she has been forced to rebuild her life, unsure whether her spouse is alive.
“We left because of the fighting—we lost everything,” she said softly as she sat with other members of Femme Resource, a group supporting pregnant women and addressing gender-based violence in the camp.
“Many women lost their husbands in the war,” she added, her voice faltering as children ran barefoot through the sand nearby. “We came with nothing.”
Over the past two decades, millions across the Sahel—a region stretching from the Atlantic to the Red Sea—have been displaced due to violence by extremist groups and armed factions, particularly in nations with fragile governance.
This instability has been compounded by factors including weapons proliferation and the presence of mercenaries following NATO’s 2011 intervention in Libya.
Recently, officials and observers have grown increasingly alarmed as armed groups expand toward coastal West Africa.
From January 2021 to October 2023, Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Togo recorded an average of 26 security incidents per month linked to extremists. In January, fighters from JNIM, an al-Qaeda affiliate, killed 30 soldiers in an attack on a military outpost in northern Benin.
A diplomat in Cameroon’s Douala, speaking anonymously to *CuriosityNews*, cited intelligence indicating that Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) units were moving across Cameroon’s borders with Nigeria, broadening their operational reach.
“They [extremists] have the capacity to strike multiple military targets,” the diplomat said.
Nigerian authorities have warned of new militant cells forming in the country’s Middle Belt, while analysts highlight deepening alliances among armed factions in the so-called “triangle of death,” spanning parts of Chad, Cameroon, and the Central African Republic.
This month, the UN reported nearly 4 million displaced across the Sahel, with worsening violence and instability driving more people from their homes.
While most remain within their own countries, cross-border movement is increasing, straining host communities where support is limited, said Abdouraouf Gnon-Konde of UNHCR.
