Military patrol hunting tourists’ killer

Four men suspected of killing three Dutch tourists near Tessalit, a remote desert locale some 2,000 km north of Bamako, have been arrested and an army patrol was hunting for a fifth suspect, a military information source in Mali told IRIN on Thursday.

The official daily newspaper, ‘L’Essor’, said the victims, whose names it gave as Ferdinand Smit, Aardi Tenboogaard and J. Jsint, had had their throats cut. The military source told IRIN that security forces found their bodies near the border with Algeria.

News reports said the three had driven from Algeria and had left Tessalit on 25 February for the south Malian town of Gao.

The military information official said the Tessalit sector had been calm.

However, a humanitarian source told IRIN that the desert track from Tessalit to the border was frequently used by smugglers and small-time traders.

Prior to 1991, the road was used heavily by locals and Westerners. However, a Tuareg rebellion that broke out in northern Mali at the start of the 1990s coupled with the Islamic fundamentalist insurgency in Algeria had made the area dangerous.

The insecurity in northern Mali caused thousands of people to flee to other parts of the country and to neighbouring countries. UNHCR resettled some 142,000 Tuaregs before closing its operation in 1999. Now, the humanitarian source said, there is no longer an insurgency in the north, but the region is prone to attacks by bandits.