Hundreds of jihadists poured into northern Mali over the weekend to help armed Islamist groups hang on to the territory as the country’s neighbours speeded up efforts to try to wrest control of the vast desert region from the Al-Qaeda linked militants. Residents of the cities of Timbuktu and Gao, Malian security officials and Islamist commanders all confirmed that there had been a huge influx of foreign fighters over the past two days. “In the Timbuktu region and around Gao, hundreds of jihadists, mostly Sudanese and Sahrawis, have arrived as reinforcements to face an offensive by Malian forces and their allies,” a Malian security official said on condition of anonymity. One resident of Timbuktu said “more than 150 Sudanese Islamists arrived in 48 hours”. “They are armed and explained that they had come to help their Muslim brothers against the infidels,” he said. The influx comes as the west African regional bloc ECOWAS forged on with plans to try and reconquer northern Mali amid fears that the area will become the same type of sanctuary for radicals that Afghaistan was a decade ago.
