Mali refugees

BAMAKO, MALI - NOVEMBER 15: Maman Dedeou, a 22-year-old laborer, had no lawyer when he stood before an Islamic court judge on charges of stealing a mattress. Afterwards, the Islamist police tied his arms and legs and took away his cell phone. They took him to a clearing near the Niger River, where a Senegalese man gave him two injections that put him to sleep. Dedeou woke up in the hospital. His right hand was amputated. He fled to Segou, and then to Bamako where he now is unemployed and lives with relatives. The Islamist radicals who rule a vast arc of territory in northern Mali are intensifying their brutality against the population, according to victims, human rights groups, community leaders, UN and Malian officials. The attacks are being perpetrated as the United States, European countries and regional African powers are considering a military strike to liberate northern Mali, after months of hesitation. (Photo by Sudarsan Raghavan/The Washington Post via Getty Images)