Militant Islamist in North West Africa is a new face to an old practice.

[Infinite Chaos]

Al-Qaeda affiliate Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) is the main group behind a surge in militant
jihadist attacks sweeping across several West African nations, especially Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

On 1 July, the group said it had carried out a major coordinated attack on seven military locations in western Mali,
including near the borders with Senegal and Mauritania.
--snip--
JNIM is led by Iyad Ag Ghali, a former Malian diplomat who belongs to the Tuareg ethnic group. He was at the
helm of the Tuareg uprising against the Malian government in 2012 which sought to establish an independent
state for the Tuareg people called Azawad. Deputy leader Amadou Koufa is from the Fulani community.​

JNIM in Mali: How an al-Qaeda offshoot became one of Africa's deadliest militant groups

JNIM has emerged as the deadliest jihadist group in West Africa as armies struggle to stem the attacks.

www.bbc.co.uk

JNIM seems to be a new face on an ages old practice in this part of Africa. Tuaregs and Fulani at the top of the pile and young black Africans at the bottom, doing the fighting and dying.
The Fulani once ran an empire all the way across from In northern Cameroon, across Nigeria all the way to Gambia and Senegal. Historically, a lot of the slave raids were into what is now Sudan. In the North, many of these slaves were traded with Tuaregs to run agriculture and serve in houses - vast numbers ended up in Mauritania which is still one of the last places in Africa that practices widespread slavery.

 

[Individual]

Take no prisoners.

 

[ataraxia]

Golden age

 

[Evilroddy]

Take no prisoners.

Individual:

So you think just like a fanatic. Behold the American Taliban, al-Ameriq'a, USIS, etc. Well done. You have become the enemy which you hate.

These are the people who you hate so:



My your God be praised.
Evilroddy.

 

[Individual]

Individual:

So you think just like a fanatic. Behold the American Taliban, al-Ameriq'a, USIS, etc. Well done. You have become the enemy which you hate,

My your God be praised.
Evilroddy.

Please explain, what you're thinking.

 

[Evilroddy]

Please explain, what you're thinking.

Individual:

Your earlier post said "Take no prisoners.". Why not? Taking no prisoners is a pretty extremist position, just like the extremists which you would recommend be given no quarter. Part of the struggle in Mali and parts around it is indeed religious but there is also a nationalist dimension too - the formation of a Tuareg homeland. The music of Tinariwen is Tuareg music, The rhythms of this music may sound somewhat similar to you because the people of Northwest Africa among others were enslaved by African and European slave traders and some of the slaves they took ended up in the British North American colonies where those rhythms survived to create the more familiar country and urban Blues music of modern America. Tinariwen and many others support the formation of this Tuareg homeland - Azawad. Many of the militants in northern Mali are nationalists more than fundamentalists. so if you impose a "Take no prisoners" policy you will be killing people trying to win back there own homeland from the vestiges of European colonialism. That includes writers, musicians, film makers, and everyday folk who seek freedom and self determination much like the some of the American settlers of the Thirteen Colonies. Do you want to kill them all and be their Lieutenant Colonel Tarleton 250 years later?

Be well and be safe.
Evilroddy.

 

[Individual]

Individual:

Your earlier post said "Take no prisoners.". Why not? Taking no prisoners is a pretty extremist position, just like the extremists which you would recommend be given no quarter. Part of the struggle in Mali and parts around it is indeed religious but there is also a nationalist dimension too - the formation of a Tuareg homeland. The music of Tinariwen is Tuareg music, The rhythms of this music may sound somewhat similar to you because the people of Northwest Africa among others were enslaved by African and European slave traders and some of the slaves they took ended up in the British North American colonies where those rhythms survived to create the more familiar country and urban Blues music of modern America. Tinariwen and many others support the formation of this Tuareg homeland - Azawad. Many of the militants in northern Mali are nationalists more than fundamentalists. so if you impose a "Take no prisoners" policy you will be killing people trying to win back there own homeland from the vestiges of European colonialism. That includes writers, musicians, film makers, and everyday folk who seek freedom and self determination much like the some of the American settlers of the Thirteen Colonies. Do you want to kill them all and be their Lieutenant Colonel Tarleton 250 years later?

Be well and be safe.
Evilroddy.

So you're claiming those in the OP just freedom fighters?

 

[Evilroddy]

So you're claiming those in the OP just freedom fighters?

Individual:

I have made no such claims. The JNIM and four of it's five predecessors are definitely terrorist organisations with Islamic fundamentalist agendas. However many of the new recruits are disaffected men and youths who have been impovrished and driven to join the JNIM by the military juntas which took over Mali Burkina Faso and other states in the region. These juntas have been at best indifferent to the privation and misery of civilian life and at worst outright murderous to civilians who they even suspect might oppose the juntas' rule. These people are not radical Islamic fundamentalist but just desperate people trying to survive. Tuareg and Amazigh Muslims are not usually fundamentalists and usually reject such extreme religious ideologies. Therefore the "Take no prisoners." policy which you have advocated will kill desperate people along with fanatics.

now I have two questions for you:

1) Did you read the whole BBC article linked to by the OP?

2) Who exactly is going to go to Mali or Burkina Faso to fight and take no prisoners? The local juntas are killing many perceived and real enemies but are spread too thin and are too poorly supplied to patrol and suppress the JNIM insurrection and religious war.

Be well and be safe.
Evilroddy.

 

[Individual]

Individual:

I have made no such claims. The JNIM and four of it's five predecessors are definitely terrorist organisations with Islamic fundamentalist agendas. However many of the new recruits are disaffected men and youths who have been impovrished and driven to join the JNIM by the military juntas which took over Mali Burkina Faso and other states in the region. These juntas have been at best indifferent to the privation and misery of civilian life and at worst outright murderous to civilians who they even suspect might oppose the juntas' rule. These people are not radical Islamic fundamentalist but just desperate people trying to survive. Tuareg and Amazigh Muslims are not usually fundamentalists and usually reject such extreme religious ideologies. Therefore the "Take no prisoners." policy which you have advocated will kill desperate people along with fanatics.

now I have two questions for you:

1) Did you read the whole BBC article linked to by the OP?

2) Who exactly is going to go to Mali or Burkina Faso to fight and take no prisoners? The local juntas are killing many perceived and real enemies but are spread too thin and are too poorly supplied to patrol and suppress the JNIM insurrection and religious war.

Be well and be safe.
Evilroddy.

To answer your questions,
1. Enough, quickly skimming over some of the text. I have limited corrected vision in 1 eye which allows me to read text from a distance of about 18 inches or less, which makes lengthy articles very hard and uncomfortable to read.

2. I don't know of anyone wanting to go there to fight, which leaves those who are coming under attack to be the ones who prevail, surrender, or die. Islam or else, there can only be one.