In Mali, efforts to reassure the population of the city of Kidal are underscored by a return to security. Following the governor's decision to impose a renewable 30-day curfew as of Wednesday, November 15, local media, citing their sources, reported the deployment of 198 police officers in the first and second districts of the city.
A police document widely shared on social media confirmed this information. The document states that all police officers transferred to Kidal were summoned on Wednesday to report at 6 a.m. at the national police academy in the capital, Bamako.
Apparently, the police will leave from this assembly point for the city of Kidal. Mali's military authorities had already anticipated this deployment of the police in the areas conquered by the army.
A year ago, the National Police and the Civil Protection were given the same attributes as the army, thanks to a law passed by the National Transitional Council remilitarizing these two corps.
"The aim of this remilitarization is to enable national police and civil protection units to be deployed in areas reconquered by the army, in order to ensure the safety of the population and their property, and prevent the return of terrorist groups", the Minister of Security and Civil Protection had defended himself when the text was adopted by the transitional legislative body.
Kidal is located in northeastern Mali, near the borders of Algeria and Niger. For more than ten years, the town has been the epicenter of an uprising by Tuareg rebels seeking to establish an independent state.
On November 9, the army announced the start of a ground operation to retake the last towns in the Kidal region. On November 14, the Malian army returned to the town of Kidal after an absence of 11 years.