Since the publication of the study ‘Menace du JNIM dans le zone de trois frontières du Mali, de la Mauritanie et du Sénégal’ (Threat of JNIM in the tri-border area of Mali, Mauritania and Senegal), several people defending descent-based slavery or wishing to justify it on certain ‘cultural’ grounds have contacted us to ask that the part of the document referring to this practice from another era be removed from the document or put into perspective.

After these numerous unsuccessful attempts and pressures, the same people wanted to use the short interview given on Rfi in an unethical manner as so-called proof that the Gambana movement was linked to extremist movements, by trying to attribute such a thesis to this scientific report. This is both short-sighted and an attempt to combat and stigmatise, as in the recent past, a movement that courageously defends human dignity and human rights.

The Timbuktu Institute study in no way maintains that the Gambana movement is in any way linked to religious extremist movements, and we refute any allegations to that effect.

In order to continue to justify a practice as despicable as descent-based slavery, these feudal currents are seeking, through various manipulations of our report, to undermine the Timbuktu Institute and Gambana, whose credo it shares of guaranteeing human dignity and rejecting all practices that run counter to it.

After exchanges of clarification on the real content of the report with Gambana officials and supporters who fight daily for the noble cause of abolition, Timbuktu Institute also wishes to apologise for any misunderstanding that these anti-abolitionists and conservatives want to maintain and who seek to exploit our research aimed simply at exposing a practice that is reprehensible from every point of view and produces injustices and frustrations that are harmful to living together and social cohesion.

In order to raise awareness of this scourge, the Institute will be taking a closer interest in the issue of descent-based slavery through research and future scientific publications designed to alert decision-makers in the region and the international community to the danger posed by this practice and those who seek to justify or perpetuate it.