A/HRC/34/72 populaire has set up checkpoints in the vicinity of Gao and Ménaka, thus posing a threat to the civilian population and for the protection of human rights. The security situation is all the more volatile since the confrontations between the CMA and the Platform resumed in July. 21. The Independent Expert is concerned about the sense of insecurity that is felt among communities. The State’s inability to protect them favours the emergence of self-defence groups and can sometimes even lead affected communities to seek the protection of jihadist groups. The current levels of popular discontent with the local authorities in the areas concerned should be taken very seriously. The Independent Expert has been told that in October, the transport trade unions of Gao and representatives of civil society organizations organized a 48-hour strike in protest at the Government’s lack of response to repeated armed attacks along the road between Gao and Mopti. Moreover, the Collective of Civil Society Organizations sent the regional governor a memorandum informing him of a strike and of a blockade along the Gao to Mopti road from 20 to 25 November, in protest at the deterioration of the security situation along this artery. 22. In Timbuktu, boat transport workers also went on strike to protest at insecurity on the Timbuktu-Ber road. It has been suggested that this strike followed an incident on 19 October at Tindjambane (18 kilometres east of Timbuktu), in which two armed individuals attacked a fish vendor and stole his motorcycle and his goods. In the Timbuktu region, teachers demonstrated on three occasions against the insecurity in the region after two teachers were killed in a vehicle ambush along the Niafounké-Tonka road on 7 November. On 14 November in Timbuktu, demonstrators went to the Governor’s office to request that Malian defence and security forces and MINUSMA provide protection on the roads. Similar protests were held in Goundam and Diré on the same day. 23. The Independent Expert was also informed of a violent protest that took place in the municipality of Konna, north of Mopti, on 26 March. According to witnesses, a crowd of more than 1,000 people, including women and children, staged a street demonstration to express their discontent at the deterioration of the security situation, and particularly at the increase in cattle theft and the lack of response from the authorities. Some of the crowd chased a few individuals thought to have been involved in the insecurity, as a result of which a 35-year-old man was killed and a local bar — allegedly used for illegal trafficking — was burned down. C. The ongoing challenge of the fight against impunity 24. Having reviewed the development of the high-profile cases mentioned in his earlier reports, the Independent Expert finds that there has been no significant progress. Since 2012, at least 157 cases of human rights violations relating to the crisis in the north of the country and the coup d’état in Bamako have given rise to complaints lodged before the competent judicial authorities. However, the latter have been reluctant to open judicial investigations, which, once opened, tend to move at a very slow pace. Only the “Red Berets” case has seen any progress, with the opening on 30 November of the trial of Amadou Haya Sanago, head of the military junta of 2012, and 17 co-defendants, including high-ranking army officers, who face prosecution for the kidnapping and murder of 21 soldiers. 25. The Independent Expert notes that the proceedings instituted by 125 victims, including 40 survivors of sexual violence in Timbuktu, where a victims’ association filed a complaint with the Timbuktu public prosecutor’s office in November 2014, have yet to see any progress. However, some tentative advances had been made in cases of sexual violence related to the conflict. For some months, the judges overseeing these cases have been holding hearings, with the help of the Trust Fund for the protection of victims and witnesses and their access to justice. 26. Furthermore, the cases of 12 women victims of sexual violence have been considered by the judicial unit on terrorism in Bamako. However, the problem remains the distance between the victims and the only jurisdiction competent to hear them, located at 6 GE.17-02058