Thursday, July 05, 2012


Birgit's picture of Fatou.
My friend David expessed that it was sad to hear that our lovely Fatou has left, in his comment on the last entry. He also mentioned having heard that the Djenne population supports Ansar Dine, recently made known to the world as the iconoclast Islamists of Timbuktu, so I will repeat here what I wrote in the comments:

Ah, David, yes, how sad to see Fatou leave!
About Ansar Dine, it appears that this movement has existed a long time in Mali, under the leadership of its charismatic preacher founder Ousman Sherif Haidara, who lives and operates in Bamako. But the Ansar Dine that he represents is not the same Jihadist movement as in Timbuktu. He has denounced publicly and energetically the developments in Timbuktu, and he does not preach Sharia law for Mali, but seems, according to Keita and all accounts, to be rather a positive force.
But who knows?
The plot is thickening by the day!

2 Comments:

Blogger David said...

Thanks for the clarification - that's some reassurance. What a marvellous photo of Fatou. Birgit's snaps are wonderful - but then so are yours (I well remember the pic of Fatou with her newborn baby).

dxx

10:25 AM  
Blogger Koumba said...

Yes the two Ansar Dines are different even though they have the same name. Haidara got rather cross at French TV confusing the two !! http://news.abamako.com/h/1725.html
Hope all's well with you Sophie !
Sarah

7:25 PM  

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