Global Post – Mali: Life under Al Qaeda

The amputation of Suleiman Traore was agonizingly slow, bloody and painful.

The 25-year-old truck driver was living in northern Mali when, in March, a coalition of tribal Tuareg separatists and Islamic militants overran the town of Gao.

A month later, Traore was at home in the afternoon playing with his 3-year-old daughter as his wife prepared soup for dinner, when two pick up trucks packed with masked, armed militants flying black flags pulled up outside.

They rushed into his compound, firing shots into the air and shouting “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest).

“That’s how everything started,” Traore said.

via Mali: Life under Al Qaeda | GlobalPost.