In Mali, it is ‘difficult to separate myth from reality’, says Defence Forces member

An Irish lieutenant colonel who previously served in Mali has described how it is difficult to “separate myth from reality” in the West African country.

At least five people were killed at a luxury resort Campement de Kangaba outside Mali’s capital Bamako on Sunday. A new alliance of Islamist militant groups linked to al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack on Monday.

Two members of the Defence Forces were present at the hotel during the incident while later returned to their mission’s headquarters in Bamako.

Lieut Col Bernard Markey, who has almost 34 years of military service recently returned from a six-month tour of Mali in which he was second in command for the EUTM (European Training Mission) Mali.

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The EUTM assists the Malian government to help re-establish its authority, principally through military training assistance in order in increase their capability to take on armed criminal and rebel groups.

"It's very hard to separate myth from reality because you sometimes don't have the ability to check yourself, because of either security issues or communication issues," he told The Irish Times.

“There are all sorts of allegations that are made and you’re entirely dependent on the local press which is sometimes less than accurate. So it is difficult to determine what’s going on. Certainly the region is turbulent at the moment.”

There are currently 18 Irish personnel serving with EUTM Mali. Lieut Col Markey said there were a number of incidences in which the Defence Forces had to take preventative action, including attacks on local police barracks.

“You follow a set procedure, all training activity ceases, everybody is returned to camp, security positions are adopted, no movement outside, headquarters alerted and you just literally hunker down until the threat dissipates,” he said.

“The principal is usually security first, any incident or perceived incident, you go lock down and you can return to base immediately.”

He said he noticed “growing violence throughout the country” during his recent tour to Mali.

“This manifests itself through either militant groups operating without anybody to control them, a lot of cattle thieving, a lot of small raids of villages, a lot of disputes which would normally be resolved by the local government infrastructure, escalating out of control and invariably resulting in fatalities and fire arm use,” he said.

“There’s a lot of firearms in Mali due to the general proliferation of firearms everywhere around the world and because of the spill over of the conflicts in Libya.”

He added there is “almost no tourism there now” and “very little evidence of anybody there who hasn’t a professional reason to be so”.