Since February of this year,В operations against ISGS have been occurring as part of a renewed push to combat the jihadist group.В Last October, four US Special Forces soldiers and five Nigerien soldiers were killed in ambush by ISGS militants in the locale of Tongo Tongo close to the Malian borders.ДЄ few weeks later, troops from the G5 Sahel deployed to the tri-border region of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso. The counterterrorism operations being conducted in the Menaka area have steadily deteriorated into large scale intercommunal conflict between Tuaregs, Fulani, and other populations inhabiting the Mali-Niger border areas. While yesterday, more intercommunal violence was reported. These massacres came after another joint GATIA-MSA operation alongside Malian and Nigerian troops against ISGS fighters. On May 1, suspected ISGS militants again targeted two Tuareg camps near the borders with Niger, which left at least 16 people dead. GATIA and MSA are believed to be responsible for the majority of the murders. Last month, the UN reported that there have been at least 95 extra-judicial killingsВ in the Menaka region since the beginning of the year. This is not the first time the two militias have been accused of extra-judicial killings.

On the same day as the murders of the Tuareg, GATIA and MSA have been accused of killing dozens of Fulani in Niger near the borders with Mali in retaliation for the massacre of the Tuaregs. The two have been counterterrorism partners with Mali, Niger, and France in the Gao and Menaka regions. MSA was founded last year by former members of several pro-Azawad groups, but is allied to GATIA and other Platforme groups. GATIA is a signatory member of the Platforme alliance, a group of largely pro-Malian state armed groups in the northern half of the country. While no one has claimed credit for the massacres, two pro-Mali militias, the Imghad and Allies Self Defense Movement (GATIA) and the Movement for the Salvation of Azawad (MSA), have placed the blame on ISGS. Starting between April 26 and April 27, at least 40 people from the Daoussahak Tuareg were killed in two separate attacks on remote villages in the Menaka area near the Gao region. Dozens of civilians from Tuareg and Fulani communities have been killed in massacres while ongoing counterterrorism operations are being conducted against the so-called Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS). Over the course of the last week, intercommunal violence within MaliвЂ™s northern Menaka region has escalated in dramatic fashion. Pro-Mali militia fighters in the Mali-Niger border region

Long war dynamic war