Where, what, who, why?
Before armed conflict broke out there in January, many people probably didn’t know where Mali was. The worrying thing is a lot of people still don’t, despite the rebellion, the threat of extremism and the subsequent French intervention. This is a really complicated situation, so please bear with me as I run through the events that have been taking place during the past month in this West African nation, just south of Algeria and west of Niger.
A former empire and one of the dominant powers in the region, and more recently a French colony, Mali had its first democratic elections in 1992, after a period of one-party rule and a series of coups. The recent crisis began early in 2012, when attacks on northern cities prompted fears of a Tuareg rebellion (Tuareg rebellions having become rather common features of Mali’s history, post-independence). Contrary to the impression given by a lot of media outlets, the Tuareg people are not Islamic extremists. They are traditionally a nomadic group, who blend Islam with their traditional animistic beliefs (rather interestingly, Tuareg women do not traditionally where the veil, but men do).
And they do have rather a lot to be angry about. Firstly, when the French invaded they took over their territories and dismantled their system of rule. Then, when most African countries gained independence traditional Tuareg territory was divided up among a number of nations, including Libya, Morocco and Mali. And this is why many Tuareg people want their land to be separate from the surrounding nations it is currently a part of. Of course, many other groups of people now live in those areas, so it’s not quite as simple as to say the Tuareg people have a right to their land and their autonomous rule over it. Nor is it as simple as to say that this is something all Tuareg people want. But hey, these things are rarely simple.
So in March 2012, the Malian president was deposed for not being seen to be properly handling the Tuareg rebels, and the African Union suspended Mali (which does not mean, as I initially thought, that the whole country is frozen in time…but that it would temporarily not be allowed to be part of the AU). At this point, the newly formed National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), the Tuareg group, was fighting alongside Islamic extremists, on the basis that they both weren’t fans of the current government.
However, it quickly became clear that fighting alongside a group that want something wholly different to you (the MNLA wanting to establish a secular state, and, well, I’m sure you can guess what kind of state the Islamic extremists wanted to establish) is not the best of ideas. The Islamic extremists turned on the MNLA, captured a bunch of northern cities and started doing really horrible things like destroying Muslim shrines that don’t agree with their warped interpretation of Islam and severely punishing people for things like having children outside of marriage.
So the Malian Prime Minister, Cheick Modibo Diarra, figured he should probably do something about this, and formed a new government of national unity to lead the fight against the extremists. The West African regional grouping Ecowas agreed to a coordinated military expedition to recapture the north, with UN and African Union backing. Then Diarra resigned, because having a bunch of extremists occupying the north of your country does not stop you having scandalous government resignations (and, also, the army, who were total fans Ecowas intervention, might have had something to do with it…).
And then France was like ‘maybe we should do something about this situation’. So in head the French troops. Fighting alongside the Malian government and the MNLA, they quickly forced out the Islamic extremist from key cities. The French’s plan is to be out of there as quickly as possible, and have the UN install a peace keeping force.
But despite the speed and relative success of the military operation, the situation is still far from OK. With continued fighting in the north, the extremists may be on the back foot but they are far from out of the picture. And then there remains the lingering question of what will happen to the MNLA in the long term. Not to mention the thousands upon thousands of people who have been displaced by the conflict, the damage to people’s property and livelihoods and the unstable position the government is left in.
Which leaves us with some pretty big questions about what France should do next, what the United Nations should do next and what we, as the United Kingdom, should do next (British troops are already providing support for the French, in roles such as intelligence gathering, and more British troops may be sent into Mali and the neighbouring regions). It’s a messy, complicated situation that desperately needs to be handled, by all parties involved, with the upmost consideration and care.
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