Leaving the village had become dangerous. Children sent on chores around Timbuktu, to collect firewood or lead animals to pasture, “were being hunted down by armed men”.
“When they attack a child who goes to look for wood … we women were afraid the men will come [into town] to attack us,” says a woman from M’bera refugee camp, who spoke anonymously for fear of reprisals.
A woman who fled violence in the Timbuktu region in the M’bera camp
Three months ago, she joined a wave of people leaving Mali after a rise in violence in the country’s long-running war against jihadist groups…
