Islamist extremists cut off thief's hand in northern Mali

Jihadists occupying northern Mali on Thursday said they had cut off the hand of a thief in accordance with strict Islamic law which they have imposed on the population. "Yes, I confirm it. We applied sharia in Ansongo yesterday (Wednesday). The hand of a thief was cut off. Sharia demands it," a leader of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), Mohamed Ould Abdine, told AFP. A local government official in the town south of Gao, one of the capitals of the vast desert region, said he witnessed the amputation. "I am in Gao now, but yesterday I was in Ansongo. There was a lot of blood when the hand was cut. It was the hand of a thief who stole a motorbike," he told AFP. He added that dozens of people had witnessed the public amputation. Abdine said the sentence was "the law of God."