Passengers commuting between Gao and other towns are asked for identity documents and interrogated by Malian soldiers, who fear some citizens are collaborating with terrorist or rebel groups.

A man drives his motorcycle past a minibus the Malian army has stopped at a checkpoint in the outskirts of Gao.

Dozens of men await interrogation at the police station after being arrested in the islands of Kadji in the outskirts of Gao under suspicion of collaborating with MUJAO.

Local leaders of the Sognhai and Tuareg communities meet to discuss how to deal with the refugees returning to Gao after they left the city following the Islamist occupation of the region and the following military intervention.

Gao citizens team up to clean and rebuild the city’s marketplace after it was destroyed during clashes between MUJAO and the Malian and French armies.

Herders look in expectation as the Malian army checks their identity documents at a checkpoint in the outskirts of Gao. Locals are aware that the Malian army has been accused of arbitrary arrests and summary executions of civilians they accuse of collaborating with rebel groups or extremist militias.

A man has been arrested and tied up at an army checkpoint. He was caught walking in the area during the night curfew, and was not carrying identity documents, and was accused of collaborating with extremists. The army has been accused of harassing civilians belonging to ethnic minorities.

A Malian soldier requests identity documents from camel traders. Many citizens from the area had never used their IDs before and many others have never had one.

Malian soldiers patrol de riverfront, where all transport and fishing activities have been suspended, leaving many fishermen and their families without work.

Women and children wash and swim at the port in Gao. In the background, boats have been parked for weeks since all traffic in the river has been suspended.

A group of traders travel on the top of a truck carrying wood to a market near Gao. Military checkpoints and the presence of fundamentalist groups have restricted the movements of many citizens in the region, who no longer feel safe travelling out of their locations.

Despite the curfew imposed by the Malian government, a small group of people gathers at a local rotisserie.

Alassane Yattara, a former militant of fundamentalist group Ansar Dine, visits the abandoned theatre where he was trained by the militia.

Alassane Yattara, a former militant of fundamentalist group Ansar Dine, stands at the site of a suicide bombing by extremist groups in a government building in Gao.

Mohammed M’barra stands inside the Askia Mosque in Gao. Since most of the Tuareg population fled the city, the mosque is not even half as busy as it normally was before the military intervention.

A soldier from Niger walks past a mosque during a patrol in Gao. Foreign soldiers form the MINUSMA peacekeeping contingent in Mali.

The abandoned mansion of an Arab trader accused by locals OF collaborating with MUJAO and of being involved in drug trafficking in the region. Many traders made big fortunes through drug trafficking, but most of them fled when the French army entered the city in early 2013 and their houses were looted.

Soldiers of the MINUSMA contingent get ready to patrol villages where they believe MUJAO collaborators are hiding.

A Tuareg man uses a turban for protection from the sand at a checkpoint of the French army at the airport in Gao.

Malian soldiers prepare to go on a raid near the town of Gossi, where they believe MUJAO leaders are hiding weapons.

A boy walks past a car destroyed during clashes between MUJAO and the Malian army at the police station in Gao.

A man wears a brand new turban bought in the street central Gao, where many businesses had to close during the military intervention.

A Tuareg man chews tobacco and prepares tea for breakfast at his hut in front of an abandoned mansion of an alleged drug trafficker. He rarely leaves his hut, as he is afraid to be attacked because of his work relation to the trader or because he belongs to the Tuareg community, linked to separatist groups.

An army convoy drives past a sign left by MUJAO during their occupation of Gao. The sign reads “Welcome to the Islamic State of Gao”.

A bombed pickup truck in which a MUJAO leader was trying to escape when the French army entered Gao in early 2013.