France Launches War in Mali in Bid to Secure Resources

Malian people look at a French armoured vehicle as French soldiers leave Bamako and start their deployment to the north of Mali as part of the operations on January 15, 2013 ., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

France Launches War in Mali in Bid to Secure Resources, Stamp Out National Rights Struggles

By Roger Annis
Global Research, January 19, 2013
Socialist Project

France, the former slave power of west Africa, has poured into Mali with a vengeance in a military attack launched on January 11. French warplanes are bombing towns and cities across the vast swath of northern Mali, a territory measuring some one thousand kilometers from south to north and east to west. French soldiers in armoured columns have launched a ground offensive, beginning with towns in the south of the northern territory, some 300 km north and east of the Malian capital of Bamako.

A French armoured convoy entered Mali several days ago from neighbouring Ivory Coast, another former French colony. French troops spearheaded the overthrow of that country’s government in 2011.

The invasion has received universal support from France’s imperialist allies. The U.S., Canada and Europe are assisting financially and with military transport. To provide a figleaf of African legitimacy, plans have been accelerated to introduce troops from eight regional countries to join the fighting (map here).

“Islamist terrorists” etc., etc.

The public relations version of the French et al invasion is a familiar refrain. “Islamic terrorists” and “jihadists” have taken control of northern Mali and are a threat to international security and to the well-being of the local population. Terrible atrocities against the local populace are alleged and given wide publicity by corporate media. Similar myths were peddled by the warmakers when they invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003.

Off with a handshake into a C-17 transport plane, to support French imperialism.

It is true that Islamic fundamentalists have ruled northern Mali with an iron hand since taking over in 2012. But the reasons for this latest intervention lie in the determination of the world’s imperial powers to keep the human and natural resources of poor regions of the world as preserves for capitalist profits. West Africa is a region of great resource wealth, including gold, oil and uranium.

The uranium mines in neighbouring Niger and the uranium deposits in Mali are of particular interest to France, which generates 78 per cent of its electricity from nuclear energy. Niger’s uranium mines are highly polluting and deeply resented by the population, including among the semi-nomadic, Tuareg people who reside in the mining regions. The French company Areva is presently constructing in Imouraren, Niger what will become the second largest uranium mine in the world.

Notwithstanding the fabulous wealth created by uranium mining, Niger is one of the poorest countries on earth. As one European researcher puts it, “Uranium mining in Niger sustains light in France and darkness in Niger.”

Mali (population 15.5 million) is the third-largest gold producing country in Africa. Canada’s IAMGOLD operates two mines there (and a third in nearby Burkina Faso). Many other Canadian and foreign investors are present.

A key player in the unfolding war is Algeria. The government there is anxious to prove its loyalty to imperialism. Its lengthy border with northern Mali is a key zone for the “pacification” of northern Mali upon which France and its allies are embarked.

Further proof of the hypocrisy of the ‘democracy’ that France claims to be fighting for in Mali is found in the nature of the Mali regime with which it is allied. Often presented in mainstream media as a ‘beacon of democracy’ in west Africa, the Mali government was little more than a corrupt and pliant neo-colonial regime before last year when the U.S.-trained and equipped Mali army twice overthrew it – in March and again in December. The Mali army now scrambling to fight alongside its French big brother was condemned and boycotted by the U.S., Europe and Canada during a brief, sham interlude of concern following the first coup.

Today, the Mali government is a shell of a regime that rules at the behest of the Mali military, the latter’s foreign trainers, and the foreign mining companies that provide much of its revenue.

The Tuareg People

At the political heart of the conflict in Mali is the decades-long struggle of the Tuareg, a semi-nomadic people numbering some 1.2 million. Their language is part of the Berber language group. Their historic homeland includes much of Niger and northern Mali and smaller parts of Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Algeria and Libya. They call themselves Kel Tamasheq (speakers of the Tamasheq language).

The Tuareg have fought a succession of rebellions in the 20th century against the borders imposed by colonialism and then defended by post-independence, neo-colonial regimes. They are one of many minority nationalities in west Africa fighting for national self-determination, including the Sahwari of Western Sahara, a region controlled by Morocco and whose Sahwari leadership, the Polisario Front, is widely recognized internationally.

The Tuareg were brutally subdued by colonial France at the outset of the 20th century. Following the independence of Mali and neighbouring countries in 1960, they continued to suffer discrimination. A first Tuareg Rebellion took place in 1962-64.

A second, larger rebellion began in 1990 and won some autonomy from the Mali government that was elected in 1992 and re-elected in 1997. A third rebellion in Mali and Niger in 2007 won further political and territorial concessions, but these were constantly reneged. A Libya-brokered peace deal ended fighting in 2009.

The Mali state and army constantly sought to retake what they had lost. Violence and even massacres against the Tuareg population pushed matters to a head in 2011. The army was defeated by the military forces of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (NMLA) and on April 6, 2012, the MNLA declared an independent Azawad, as they call northern Mali and surrounding region. The Tuareg are one of several national groups within the disputed territory.

The independence declaration proved premature and unsustainable. The MNLA was soon pushed aside by Islamist-inspired armed groups that oppose Tuareg self-determination and an independent state. The army, meanwhile, continued to harass and kill people. A group of 17 visiting Muslim clerics, for example, were massacred on September 22, 2012.

According to unconfirmed reports, the MNLA has renounced the goal of an independent Azawad. It entered into talks with the Mali regime in December for autonomy in the northern region. A January 13 statement on the group’s website acquiesces to the French intervention but says it should not allow troops of the Mali army to pass beyond the border demarcation line declared in April of last year.

Militarization of Mali and West Africa

Mali is one of the poorest places on earth but has been drawn into the whirlwind of post-September, 2001 militarization led by the United States. U.S. armed forces have been training the Mali military for years. In 2005, the U.S. established the Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Partnership comprising eleven ‘partner’ African countries-Algeria, Burkina Faso, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal.

The ‘partnership’ conducts annual military exercises termed ‘Flintlock.’ This year’s exercise is to take place in Niger and according to the January 12 Globe and Mail, “Canada’s military involvement in Niger has already commenced.”

Canadian troops have participated in military exercises in west Africa since at least 2008. In 2009, Mali was named one of six “countries of focus” in Africa for Canadian aid. Beginning that year, Canadian aid to Mali leaped to where it is now one of the largest country recipients of Canada aid funds.

In 2008, Canada quietly launched a plan to establish at least six, new military bases abroad, including two in Africa. (It is not known exactly where the Africa part of the plan stands today.)

War Atrocities

Only days into the French attack, evidence is mounting of significant civilian and military casualties. In the town of Douentza in central Mali, injured civilians can’t reach the local hospital, according to Médecins sans frontières (Doctors Without Borders). “Because of the bombardments and fighting, nobody is moving in the streets of Douentza and patients are not making it through to the hospital,” said a statement by the agency’s emergency response co-ordinator Rosa Crestani.

The International Red Cross is reporting scores of civilian and military casualties in the towns coming under French attack.

Amnesty International is worried. Its West Africa researcher, Salvatore Saguès, was in the country last September and saw the recruitment of children into the Mali army. He is worried about retaliatory attacks by the army if it retakes control of the towns and cities it has lost, notably in the northern cities of Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu.

He also warned of the plans to bring neighbouring armies into northern Mali. “These armies, who are already committing serious violations in their countries, are most likely to do the same, or at least not behave in accordance to international law if they are in Mali,” he said.

According to the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, the latest crisis has internally displaced nearly 230,000 Malians. An additional 144,500 Malians were already refugees in neighbouring countries.

UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards says half the population of the town of Konna, some 5,000 people, sought as French bombs threatened to fall by fleeing across the River Niger.

In an ominous sign of more civilian casualties to come, and echoing the excuses for atrocities by invading armies against civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine in recent years, French military commanders are complaining of the difficulty in distinguishing fighters they are bombing from non-combatant populations. France’s army chief Edouard Guillaud told Reuters that France’s air strikes were being hampered because militants were using civilian populations as shields.

No to the War in Mali

The military attack in Mali was ordered by French President François Hollande, the winner of the 2012 election on behalf of the Socialist Party. His decision has been condemned by groups on the political left in France, including the Nouveau parti anticapitaliste and the Gauche anticapitaliste. The latter is a tendency with the Front de gauche (Left Front) that captured 11 per cent of the first-round presidential vote last year.

Shockingly, the Left Front leadership group has come out in favour of the intervention. Deputy François Asensi spoke on behalf of the party leadership in the National Assembly on January 16 and declared,

“The positions of the deputies of the Left Front, Communists and republicans, is clear: To abandon the people of Mali to the barbarism of fanatics would be a moral mistake… International military action was necessary in order to avoid the installation of a terrorist state.”

His statement went on to complain that President Hollande did not bother to seek the approval of the National Assembly.

A January 12 statement by the French Communist Party (PCF), a component of the Left Front, said,

“The PCF shares the concern of Malians over the armed offensive of the Jihadist groups toward the south of their country… The party recalls here that the response to the request for assistance by the president of Mali should have been made in the framework of a United Nations and African Union sponsorship, under the flag of the UN…”

Unlike the overthrow of Haiti’s elected government in 2004, which the PCF and Socialist Party supported at the time, France and its allies did not feel the need to obtain a rubber stamp of approval from the UN Security Council this time in Mali. But doing so would not have changed the predatory nature of this latest mission, just as it didn’t in Haiti.

A January 15 statement by the Canadian Peace Alliance explains:

“The real reason for NATO’s involvement is to secure strategic, resource rich areas of Africa for the West. Canadian gold mining operations have significant holdings in Mali as do may other western nations…

“It is ironic that since the death of Osama Bin Laden, the U.S. military boasts that Al-Qaeda is on the run and has no ability to wage its war. Meanwhile, any time there is a need for intervention, there is suddenly a new Al-Qaeda threat that comes out of the woodwork. Canada must not participate in this process of unending war.”

That’s a call to action which should be acted upon in the coming days and weeks as one of the poorest and most ecologically fragile regions of the world falls victim to deeper militarization and plundering.

Roger Annis is an antiwar activist who lives in Vancouver, Canada.

U.S. Hands Off Mali!---Statement From the Virginia Defenders

Mali military forces have staged several mutinies in response to the failure of the central government to handle a rebellion in the north of the country. The Tuareg people are seeking to establish a separate state., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

U.S. Hands Off Mali!

An Analysis of the Recent Events in the Republic of Mali

By the Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality – Richmond, Virginia, USA
April 4, 2012

Recent developments in the West African Republic of Mali are raising serious concerns about the possibility of yet another U.S. intervention. On March 22, one month before a scheduled presidential election, a military coup toppled the government of President Amadou Toumani Toure. Quickly taking sides, the regional 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) demanded the coup leaders restore civilian rule. On March 26, the U.S. cut off all military aid to the impoverished country.

On April 1, coup leader Capt. Amadou Haya Sanogo, who has received military training in the U.S. (1) and who is charging massive corruption by civilian political leaders, said he had reinstated the country's constitution and government institutions and would begin consultations to form a transitional government, which would be “responsible for organizing peaceful, free, open and democratic elections in which we will not participate.” Those national consultations were to begin April 5 in the capital city of Bamako.

That was not enough for ECOWAS, an economic and military bloc with ties to the U.S. Meeting April 2 in Dakar, Senegal, the alliance's members closed their countries' borders with land-locked Mali and imposed severe sanctions, including cutting off access to the regional bank, raising the possibility that Mali will soon be unable to pay for essential supplies, including gasoline.

Meeting the following day in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the 54-member African Union imposed a travel ban and asset freeze on Capt. Sanogo and his associates. Also on April 3, the United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting on the Mali crisis and declared its support for ECOWAS' efforts “to restore order in Mali. U.N. political affairs chief Lynn Pascoe told the council on Tuesday that ECOWAS had placed some 3,000 troops on standby to deal with the coup and rebellion in Mali.” (2)

Roots of the coup

What sparked the coup was the central government's inability to deal with the rebellion now under way in northern Mali, a region populated by the Tuareg, an ethnically Berber, nomadic people who eke out a living in the inhospitable desert. Long-standing grievances of neglect by the government have led many Tuaregs to despair of reform.

The simmering resentment came to a head in January after the U.S.-led bombing of Libya and the overthrow of that country's government.

Around 2,000 Tuaregs who had been employed as soldiers by the Libyan
government returned to Mali, heavily armed and with uncertain prospects of finding jobs or arable land. A rebellion broke out, one the government was in no position to counter, provoking a mutiny by angry rank-and-file Malian soldiers who chased President Touré into hiding. The Tuareg rebellion sharply escalated March 30, when rebels seized control of three key cities, including the legendary cultural and trading center of Timbuktu.

The armed rebels who now control all northern cities have several factions. One wing is demanding independence for the north.

Another says its goal is to create an Islamic republic operating under strict Sharia law – which might be all of Mali or simply the northern half, which this faction is calling Azawad. The conflict has reportedly driven some 100,000 people as refugees into neighboring countries, while internally displacing more than 90,000.

Meanwhile, important independent forces within Mali and in the sub-region are calling for an end to outside pressure and a peaceful resolution to both the coup and the rebellion.

Will the U.S. intervene?

What raises concerns about a possible U.S. role are the important geopolitical position that Mali occupies, the fact that the U.S. military is already in the country and the presence of known oil reserves under the desert sands of northern Mali.

Mali is strategically located between the Arab African north and the Black African south. This largely Muslim country borders seven other countries: (clockwise from the northeast) Algeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Cote-d'Ivoire, Guinea, Senegal and Mauritania. This makes Mali of interest to the U.S., which seeks to counter the growing Chinese economic presence in Africa. (China is now Mali's largest export trading partner.)

Under the umbrella of its Africa Command, or AFRICOM, the U.S. has been systematically developing ties with the militaries of African countries, including Mali. Washington annually contributes about $140 million to Mali, half of it supposedly for humanitarian purposes, the other half to support “development” and the Malian military, an organization of just 7,000 soldiers. The U.S. State

Department handpicks Malian officers for special training in the U.S.

Over the past few months, almost every incoming flight to Bamako has brought a dozen U.S. soldiers, obvious by their haircuts and by the greeting party that usually includes a couple of men in U.S. army uniform. (3) No one will say how many U.S. military personnel are based in Mali, but there is no doubt that AFRICOM sees Mali as highly strategic to its goals in Africa.

In February 2008, AFRICOM representatives participated in a five-day “Strategic Level Seminar” held in Bamako and sponsored by ECOWAS.

According to AFRICOM's website, “The seminar focused on the training needs of ECOWAS member states in the area of peace support operations.” (4) In other words, regional military cooperation.

Further, “West African leaders' perspectives concerning their regional environment focused overwhelmingly on human security issues, rather than the state-versus-state competition that has been the hallmark of international politics.” (5) So this was a meeting to discuss internal security issues, like popular unrest and rebellions. Among the speakers at the seminar was U.S. Army Gen. William E. “Kip” Ward, AFRICOM's commander. The seminar was co-sponsored by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, an outfit funded by the U.S. Defense Department. (4)

Then there's the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership, a “multi-faceted, multi-year U.S. Government (USG) program created to promote regional military cooperation among governments in the 'Pan-Sahel'” region, including Mali. (6)

In 2010, there was Exercise Flintlock 10, a “special operations forces exercise, conducted by Special Operations Command Africa with participation of key European nations,” focusing on “military interoperability and capacity-building with partner nations throughout the Trans-Saharan region of Africa.” (7)

In February 2012, there was Atlas Accord 12, an “annual-joint-aerial-delivery exercise, hosted by U.S. Army Africa,” which “brings together U.S. Army personnel with militaries in Africa to enhance air drop capabilities and ensure effective delivery of military resupply materials and humanitarian aid.” (8) This took place while the Tuareg rebellion was unfolding in the north.

The Africa Command had planned to hold Flintlock 2012 in Mali last month, but canceled because of the
insurgency. The exercise was supposed to bring together security forces from West Africa, Europe and the U.S to coordinate “counterterrorism” missions. (1)

From empire to colony to neocolony

For centuries, present-day Mali was the center of the mighty Mali-Sonrai Empire, with a land area larger than Europe, important gold mines and a full-time army to defend its borders. By the 19th century, however, the central power had been greatly weakened and between 1880 and 1916 the region was colonized by France, which took over scarce farmland for cotton production.

When they were finally forced out of Africa in 1960, the French left behind desperately poor countries. Today Mali remains the 23rd poorest country on earth, with the 49th lowest life expectancy – barely 53 years. It is one of eight countries currently facing drought and severe food shortages in the Sahel, the vast region that forms the southern edge of the Sahara Desert.

A country of 14.5 million people, Mali is a study in contradictions.

Twice the size of Texas, it is one of Africa's largest but least populated countries. Rich in deposits of gold, phosphates, kaolin and salt, its people have an annual per capita purchasing power of just $1,300. Less than 4 percent of its land is capable of growing irrigated crops.

It has the world's third highest birth rate and the third highest infant mortality. Just 56 percent of its people have access to decent drinking water and all of them face a high risk of contracting malaria and waterborne diseases.

Less than half the population can read and write, with few receiving more than an elementary school education. With no oil or gas production of its own, the country is dependent on others for its energy needs. Total annual spending by the federal government is $2.6 billion. (Virginia's budget, with half Mali's population, currently is $41.7 billion.

One particular legacy of colonialism is the desperately poor condition of the Tuareg, who along with Moors make up about 10 percent of the population.

It has been known for decades that vast oil deposits likely lie beneath the sands of the northern desert regions – a fact that has been elaborately denied by successive U.S. ambassadors, although the oil deposits had been predicted in the 1950s by French geologists.

In February of this year, two foreign companies signed oil and gas exploration deals with the Malian government “that oblige them to invest millions of US dollars in the search of petroleum in the country's vast desert. Both Algeria's national oil company SONATRACH and the Canadian owned Selier Energy say that the vast Taoudeni basin, at Mali's borders with Mauritania and Algeria, shows great potential for major oil and gas discoveries.” (9) In a world hungry for energy resources, who will get control of these reserves? U.S. strategists are fearful of China’s growing influence, adding competition to greed as motives to control the area.

In crisis, U.S. sees opportunity

It's not hard to see how Washington would view the present crisis as an opportunity to gain control, directly or indirectly, of this important African country. The U.S., along with most European countries, has condemned the March 22 coup, but has made no mention of the grievances of the Tuareg. (Coups themselves are not universally condemned by the U.S., which not only did not condemn, but is strongly suspected of being behind, the June 2009 coup against progressive Honduran President Manuel Zelaya.)

Regional economic sanctions will inevitably weaken Mali’s government, making it even less able to provide for the needs of the Malian people, including the Tuareg. Inevitably, there will be calls for the U.S. to intervene – for purely humanitarian reasons, of course. We have seen this pattern before, in Iraq, Somalia, Yugoslavia, Haiti and in many other countries. With its listening base in Tessalit near the Algerian border and its February Atlas Accord exercise on airlifting humanitarian relief, the U.S. is well-positioned to start flying military aircraft into northern Mali, giving it “boots on the ground,” with a cover.

We believe that the U.S. military has no legitimate role to play in any other country, especially those formerly colonized and exploited by the Western powers. Humanitarian aid should be managed by the United Nations, not by the Pentagon.

Neither does the U.S government have the right to impose sanctions on other countries, whether it be Cuba, Iran or Mali. Only the people of Mali have the right to decide their own destiny. This is the simple right of oppressed peoples to self-determination.

We say: U.S. Hands Off Mali! No Troops, No Sanctions, No Interference
of Any Kind!

(1) “Leader of Mali military coup trained in U.S.” - Washington Post,
March 23, 2012
(2) “U.N. council alarmed by al Qaeda presence in Mali” - Reuters, April 4, 2012
(3) Personal correspondence
(4) “AFRICOM Senior Leader Visits Mali, Meets President” - U.S.
Africa Command, Feb. 29, 2008 -
http://www.africom.mil/getArticle.asp?art=1662&lang=0
(5) “Transparency in Mali” - U.S. Africa Command, March 6, 2008 -
http://www.africom.mil/africomDialogue.asp?entry=151&lang=
(6) The Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership – U.S. Africa
Command - http://www.africom.mil/tsctp.asp
(7) “Snapshot: Bamako, Mali” - U.S. Africa Command, May 27, 2010
http://www.africom.mil/africomDialogue.aspentry=1247&lang=0
(8) “U.S., Malian Military Medics Train to Save Lives” - U.S. Africa
Command, Feb. 10, 2012 -
http://www.africom.mil/getArticle.asp?art=7618&lang=0
(9) “Finally serious oil explorations in Mali” - Afrol News, Feb. 14,
2012 – http://www.afrol.com/articles/24339

Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality l PO Box 23202, Richmond, VA
23223 – USA
Web: www.DefendersFJE.org l Blog: www.DefendersFJE.blogspot.com l
Email: DefendersFJE@hotmail.com
Phone: 804-644-5834 l Fax: 804-332-5225

Washington's Political Destabilization Agenda in Africa

Malian military troops have staged a coup in the West African state. The government has failed to respond politically and militarily to a rebellion in the north of the country., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

WASHINGTON'S POLITICAL DESTABILIZATION AGENDA IN AFRICA: Separatist War Looms in Post-coup Mali

By Nile Bowie

Global Research, March 31, 2012
nilebowie.blogspot.com

As the inexperienced protagonists of Mali’s military coup receive worldwide condemnation from the international community and neighboring members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), thousands have taken to the streets of the Malian capital of Bamako in support of the newly founded junta. Citizens carried placards and banners reading "Down with the international community” and “Down with Sarkozy," while chanting slogans in praise of junta leader, Captain Amadou Sanogo. [1]

Although Sanogo has visited the US several times after being handpicked by the Pentagon to participate in an International Military Education and Training program sponsored by the US State Department [2], representatives of the United States have called on coup leaders in Mali on to step down and allow for elections to take place. [3]

US State Department spokesman Mark Toner has threatened the penurious West African state with a staunch diplomatic and financial embargo if power is not returned to ousted Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure within seventy-two hours. [4] While half the population lives on less than $1.25 per day [5], the imposition of economic sanctions to the landlocked import-reliant nation will inevitably lead to greater social instability and civil unrest. As the prospects of embargo work to further nurture war-like conditions amid longstanding poverty, the ECOWAS bloc has put its troops on standby near Mali’s borders, ready to intervene should the situation deteriorate. [6] During the 2010 - 2011 crisis in Côte d'Ivoire, forces loyal to the French-backed Alassane Ouattara undertook a widespread campaign of atrocities against civilians [7], a further reminder of the danger posed by the international community’s rush to military intervention in crisis stricken regions of Africa.

As the United States and others espouse the importance of returning to constitutional order while Malians offer their support to the junta, the strength of Mali’s touted democratic institutions appear highly questionably. The primary justification behind the coup came from the civilian government’s inadequate response to an ongoing campaign of Tuareg separatism in northern Mali, although the recent disarray in Bamako has prompted the steady advance of armed Tuareg militias southward. Under the banner of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), armed militias have reportedly seized the northeastern region of Kidal, prompting the poorly equipped Malian army to abandon its strategic northward positions. [8] The Tuareg are a traditionally nomadic and pastoralist ethnic minority group of some 1.5 million people who seek to secede from the Malian republic and form an independent nation called Azawad; the group has traditionally existed in a territory scattered across the Sahel and Sahara countries largely operated by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

Although the Tuareg have been credited with the recent destabilization in Northern Mali, a strong possibility exists that AQIM has more accurately been behind insurgent activity in the region. [9] The MNLA has stated that the objective of its independence campaign is develop a stronghold from which to safeguard against violent AQIM activity, while Bamako has asserted that the MNLA seek to found a ridged Islamist state in partnership with AQIM. [10] Subsequent to the fall of Gaddafi in NATO’s Libyan war-theater, armed Malian and Nigerien ethnic-Tuareg fighters were seen descending into the Sahara in army issue Toyota Hi-Lux technical trucks used by al-Qaeda affiliated Libyan rebels [11]. While it may be difficult to distinguish the true protagonists of violence in northern Mali, the resurgence of their activity has been greatly enhanced by their access to mortars, machine guns, anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons originally belonging to the radical Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG). [12]

The presence of a second Tuareg-dominated separatist group, Ancar Dine further complicates the situation; the movement seeks to impose sharia law throughout northern Mali and is led by Iyad Ag Ghaly, a prominent Salafi figure thought to have links with a branch of Ayman al-Zawahiri’s AQIM, led by his cousin Hamada Ag Hama. [13] As separatists now control a third of Mali, a food crisis is approaching over Sahel-Saharan Africa as nearly eighty thousand refugees seek amnesty in neighboring Algeria, Niger, Mauritania and Burkina Faso. [14] As the militant Ancar Dine appear to be claiming to control over regions previously attributed to the MNLA [15], their advance may have wider implications, capable of drastically fomenting regional instability.

An influx of refugees will put further strain on Algeria and Niger, with a heightened prospect for widespread uprisings seen during the Arab Spring unfolding in the Sahel region. Algeria may be further destabilized if the security situation continues to deteriorate in Mali, as France may feel compelled to intervene in the affairs of its former colonial holdings, as seen tragically in Côte d'Ivoire. The crisis in Mali bears a striking parallel to events in Nigeria, a nation struggling with the Islamic insurgent activities of separatist Boko Haram to its north. Given the political instability in Abuja, a coup orchestrated by low-ranking officers against Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan based on the Malian model would not be unthinkable. As the World Bank and African Development Bank suspend all aid to Mali, some form of military intervention is conceivable if the UNSC’s calls for the “immediate restoration of constitutional rule and the democratically elected government" are not heeded [16].

As Mali's neighbors threaten to use sanctions and military force to depose the current Committee for the Re-establishment of Democracy and the Restoration of the State (CNRDR) led by Captain Amadou Sanogo [17], the junta has unveiled a new constitution guaranteeing freedom of speech, thought and movement [18]. Sanogo vowed not to cling to power and to set up democratic elections when the Tuareg insurgency can be contained; those who took part in the coup would be barred from participation in the elections [19]. The influx of arms from NATO’s regime change programme in Libya has created dire prospects for a heavily armed civil war in Mali; it remains to be seen how the NATO bloc will react if the CNRDR refuses calls to step down and engages in a drawn-out conflict with Islamist separatists. As the US military counters the Lord’s Resistance Army by expanding its military presence through AFRICOM (United States Africa Command) in the Democratic People’s Republic of the Congo, the worsening situation in both Mali and Nigeria provide further justification for foreign intervention and war profiteering.

Notes

[1] Mali: des milliers de manifestants soutiennent la junte, comprise en vue, AFP March 28, 2012

[2] Leader of Mali military coup trained in U.S., Washington Post, March 25, 2012

[3] US calls for Mali coup leaders to step down, CNN March 30, 2012

[4] Ibid

[5] Human Development Indices, United Nations Development Programme, 2008

[6] Mali coup: African Spring Russia Today March 29, 2012

[7] Côte d’Ivoire: Ouattara Forces Kill, Rape Civilians During Offensive, Human Rights Watch, April 9, 2011

[8] Tuareg rebels force Mali army out of North, World News Australia, March 31, 2012

[9] Mali's mutineers maintain unusual tradition of tolerance and turbulence, The Guardian, March 22, 2012

[10] Arab Spring Bleeds Deeper into Africa, Asia Times March 24, 2012

[11] Ibid

[12] Qaddafi’s Weapons, Taken by Old Allies, Reinvigorate an Insurgent Army in Mali The New York Times, February 5, 2012

[13] Islamist fighters call for Sharia law in Mali, AFP, March 13, 2012

[14] Les rebelles touaregs contrôlent un tiers du Mali, Libération, March 13, 2012

[15] Armed Islamist group claims control in northeast Mali AFP, March 20, 2012

[16] Mali coup: World commends mutineers, BBC, March 23, 2012

[17] Mali neighbors threaten to reverse coup, Reuters, March 27, 2012

[18] Mali coup: West African leaders abandon visit, BBC, March 29, 2012

[19] New Mali leaders reveal constitution, Russia Today March 23, 2012

Nile Bowie is an independent writer and photojournalist based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Mali Military Mutiny Raises Concern of Possible Coup

A map of the West African state of Mali illustrating Timbuktu, Bomako and Hombori. Mali has an ancient history of culture and civilization., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Military Mutiny in Mali Reported

Soldiers in Mali have staged a mutiny in the capital, cutting off state media broadcasts and firing on the presidential palace.

The sound of gunfire and heavy weapons was heard into the night in Bamako as disgruntled troops took control of small parts of the city.

A second mutiny was reported in the strategic northern town of Gao.

Reuters quoted a defence ministry official saying that coup d’etat was in progress. But President Amadou Toumani Touré denied this on his Twitter account.

“There is no coup in Mali. There’s just a mutiny,” his message said.

The unrest follows two months of mounting anger within Mali’s military over the response to a fresh rebellion in the north by Tuareg insurgents from the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), who are trying to carve out their own homeland. The rebels have been boosted by the return of fighters who had fought for Muammer Gaddafi in Libya and brought back with them heavy arms, enabling them to outgun Mali’s army on several occasions. Dozens of soldiers have been killed and nearly 200,000 people have been forced from their homes by the fighting.

Up to now, Malian soldiers have been demanding better weapons and other supplies from the government. But on Wednesday some of the mutineers said they wanted to unseat the president.

“He needs to leave power, that is all. The movement will only stop with the taking of the palace,” a sergeant who joined the mutiny told Reuters.

Mr Touré, who has ruled since 2002, is due to step down after April’s elections.

The mutiny in the capital was sparked by the visit of Mali’s defence minister to army barracks in the town of Kati, around 13 miles from Bamako. Soldiers accused the minister of failing to arm them properly for the fight against the rebels. Rocks were thrown before troops seized weapons from the armoury and began firing in the air.

Mutineers in pickup trucks then took control of the area around the national broadcaster and forced it off the air. Clashes at the presidential palace followed in the evening. In Gao, a northern town coveted by the MNLA, soldiers took half a dozen senior officers hostage, according to reports.

France, the former colonial power, called for calm. The regional bloc Ecowas has strongly condemned the rebellion, which has far from unanimous support from Mali’s Tuareg population.


March 21, 2012, 6:15 p.m. ET

Mali Troops Storm State TV

Associated Press

BAMAKO, Mali—Disgruntled soldiers have stormed state TV and radio in Mali's capital and cut off broadcasts in a growing fallout over a northern rebellion where Tuareg separatists are besting the military.

Soldiers say Defense Minister Gen. Sadio Gassama was visiting a military camp near the presidential palace in Bamako on Wednesday when unhappy young troopers started firing into the air. They then stoned the general's car, forcing him to leave the camp in haste.

Soon after, they stormed the offices of the state broadcaster, yanking both TV and radio off the air.

The soldiers said that the campaign in northern Mali is badly managed, short of arms and food supplies. They also said the government must take better care of the families of soldiers killed in the rebellion that started mid-January. Tens of thousands of people have fled within Mali and others to four neighboring countries.

The Obama administration said it is monitoring the unrest in Mali, including reports of a possible coup in the African nation the U.S. has long held up as an example of a thriving democracy.

The U.S. Embassy in Bamako is advising Americans in Mali to stay indoors.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the situation Wednesday was "unclear and unfolding quickly." She said radio and television signals are dead. She cited reports of military forces surrounding the presidential palace.

Hours after soldiers stormed state TV and radio in the capital, soldiers reported that young recruits had started rioting at a military base located outside the strategic northern town of Gao.

A military student who was on the base when the mutiny started said that at sundown, the recruits started shooting in the air. They captured a half dozen officers, and have sequestered them. And they were going house to house looking for the commander of the camp.


Frustrated with handling of Tuareg rebellion, Mali’s military mutinies

BABA AHMED
BAMAKO— The Associated Press
Published Wednesday, Mar. 21, 2012 7:32PM EDT

Disgruntled soldiers in Mali mutinied at two military bases on Wednesday and cut off broadcasts at state TV and radio, but the President insisted that the country was not facing a coup attempt.

The sounds of heavy weaponry echoed into the night in Bamako, where recruits had earlier mutinied at a military base, shooting volleys in the air.

The mutiny spread to a military base in Gao, a strategic northern town, where troops captured a half-dozen senior officers and were holding them, according to a military student at the base who requested anonymity because he feared for his safety.

A Twitter message from the account of Malian President Amadou Toumani Touré insisted Wednesday: “There is no coup in Mali.

There’s just a mutiny.”

Young soldiers are increasingly angry over the government’s failure to come to grips with a northern rebellion of Tuareg separatists. Soldiers who took part in the attack in the capital said they are doing so in order to pressure the government to listen to their demands and not in an effort to overthrow the landlocked nation’s democratically elected leaders.

But in the capital, which has weathered multiple coups, the population was on edge. Businesses barricaded their doors. Office workers rushed to get home.

Since the afternoon, both state TV and radio had been yanked off the air. Residents in the neighbourhood where the state broadcaster is located reported seeing soldiers place a machine gun in front of the TV station.

Armed men stopped cars from going nearby, and only motorcycles could navigate past the newly erected military checkpoints in central Bamako.

The Obama administration is monitoring the unrest in Mali, a nation the United States has long held up as an example of a thriving democracy in Africa.

The U.S. embassy in Bamako was advising Americans in Mali to stay indoors.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the situation was “unclear and unfolding quickly.” She said grievances should be addressed through dialogue, not violence.


Mali Military Blocks Presidential Palace After Gunshots

By Diakaridia Dembele on March 21, 2012

Soldiers in Mali blocked roads around the presidential palace in Bamako, the capital, after shots were heard earlier in the day, according to local media reports.

Soldiers were stationed in the area around the state-owned broadcaster, Radio Kledu and Journal du Mali, a news website, reported. The gunfire started just before a meeting between soldiers and Mali’s defense minister about the Tuareg rebellion that the army is battling in the country’s north, according to London-based Control Risks.

Both of Office de la Radio-Television Malienne’s radio stations and its two television channels were not broadcasting as of 6 p.m. in Bamako. Journal du Mali said its employees had been evacuated.

“The situation is currently unclear and unfolding quickly,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said today in Washington. The U.S. embassy in Bamako “is monitoring the situation closely and has advised U.S. citizens in Mali to shelter in place.”

“We understand that today the elected government met with the military forces to discuss their concerns regarding troop grievances and the conflict in the north,” she said in an e- mailed statement. “We believe that grievances should be addressed through dialogue, not through violence.”

Soldiers who fired shots into the air were demanding better arms to fight against the Azawad National Liberation Movement, Control Risks said on its website. The group, known by its French acronym MNLA, started a campaign for autonomous rule in Mali’s north with attacks on military camps in January.

The African Union Peace and Security Council expressed “deep concern” about the rebellion, and the said the crisis poses a threat to peace and stability in West Africa.

To contact the reporter on this story: Diakaridia Dembele in Bamako at ddembele@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Emily Bowers at ebowers1@bloomberg.net

Russia-West Tensions Inflame UN Debate on Mali Peacekeepers

By JENNIFER PELTZ

Sadya Touré, Director of Mali Musso, on screen, addresses the United Nations Security Council, Monday, June 13, 2022 at United Nations Headquarters. The U.N.'s mission in the West African nation is up for renewal this month, at a volatile time when extremist attacks are intensifying. (Loey Felipe/UN Photo via AP)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Tensions between Russia and the West are aggravating talks about the future of one of the United Nations’ biggest and most perilous peacekeeping operations, the force sent to help Mali resist a decade-long Islamic extremist insurgency.

The U.N.’s mission in the West African nation is up for renewal this month, at a volatile time when extremist attacks are intensifying. Three U.N. peacekeepers have been killed this month alone. Mali’s economy is choking on sanctions imposed by neighboring countries after its military rulers postponed a promised election. France and the European Union are ending their own military operations in Mali amid souring relations with the governing junta.

U.N. Security Council members widely agree the peacekeeping mission, known as MINUSMA, needs to continue. But a council debate this week was laced with friction over France’s future role in Mali and the presence of Russian military contractors.

“The situation has become very complex for negotiations,” said Rama Yade, senior director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank.

“The international context has a role, and Mali is part of the Russian game on the international stage,” she said.

The peacekeeping mission began in 2013, after France led a military intervention to oust extremist rebels who had taken over cities and major towns in northern Mali the year before. MINUSMA now counts roughly 12,000 troops, plus about 2,000 police and other officers. More than 270 peacekeepers have died.

France is leading negotiations on extending the mission’s mandate and is proposing to continue providing French aerial support. The U.N.’s top official for Mali, El-Ghassim Wane, said the force particularly needs the capabilities of attack helicopters.

But Mali strongly objects to a continued French air presence.

“We would call, therefore, for respect for our country’s sovereignty,” Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop told the council Monday.

Mali asked France, its onetime colonial ruler, for military help in 2013. The French military was credited with helping to boot the insurgents out of Timbuktu and other northern centers, but they regrouped elsewhere, began attacking the Malian army and its allies and pushed farther south. The government now controls only 10% of the north and 21% of the central region, according to a U.N. report this month.

Patience with the French military presence is waning, though, especially as extremist violence mounts. There have been a series of anti-French demonstrations in the capital, which some observers suggest have been promoted by the government and a Russian mercenary outfit, the Wagner Group.

Mali has grown closer to Russia in recent years as Moscow has looked to build alliances and gain sway in Africa — and both countries are at odds with the West. High-ranking Malian and Russian officials have been hit with European Union sanctions, sparked by Russia’s actions in Ukraine since 2014 and by Mali’s failure to hold elections that had been pledged for this past February.

Against that backdrop, Security Council members squared off over the Wagner Group’s presence in Mali. The Kremlin denies any connection to the company. But Western analysts say it’s a tool of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s campaign to gain influence in Africa.

The Wagner Group has committed serious human rights and international humanitarian law violations, according to allegations by the E.U. and human rights organizations. In Mali, Human Rights Watch has accused Russian fighters and Mali’s army of killing hundreds of mostly civilian men in the town of Moura; Mali said those killed were “terrorists.” The U.N. peacekeeping force is investigating, as is the Malian government.

The recent U.N. report on Mali remarked on “a significant surge” in reports of abuses committed by extremists and Malian forces, sometimes accompanied by “foreign security personnel.” It didn’t name names, but British deputy U.N. Ambassador James Kariuki said council members “are under no illusions – this is the Russian-backed Wagner Group.”

Mali says otherwise. While officials have said Russian soldiers are training the Malian military as part of a longstanding security partnership between the two governments, Diop insisted to the Security Council that “we don’t know anything about Wagner.”

However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a TV interview in May that the Wagner Group was in Mali “on a commercial basis.”

Russian deputy U.N. Ambassador Anna Evstigneeva told the Security Council that African countries have every right to engage soldiers-for-hire. And she suggested they have every reason to, saying Mali’s security “continues to unravel” despite European military endeavors.

She blasted Western unease about Russia’s tightening ties to Mali as “neocolonialist approaches and double standards.”

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres plans a six-month review to consider ways to retool MINUSMA.

To Sadya Touré, a writer and the founder of a women’s organization called Mali Musso, told the council her country “should not be a battlefield between major powers.”

“People are the ones who are suffering the consequences of these tensions.”

Mali News Update: Government, Rebels Agree to Respect 'National Unity'

Malians demonstrating against the United Nations Security Council resolution authorizing the use of force to put down the Tuareg insurgency in the north of the West African state. The protest took place on October 18, 2012., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Mali government, rebels agree to respect 'national unity'

(AFP)--OUAGADOUGOU — The Malian government and two rebel groups agreed Tuesday to respect Mali's "national unity" as they held their first talks to try to end the crisis that has split the west African country in two.

Delegations from the government, the Islamist Ansar Dine and the Tuareg MNLA agreed "on the respect for Mali's national unity and territorial integrity," and "on the rejection of any form of extremism and terrorism," they said in a statement.


December 04, 2012

Mali Government Meets with Key Rebel Groups

by VOA News

Mali is holding its first direct talks with two rebel groups that seized control in the country's north, in a bid to resolve the country's political crisis.

Top government officials gathered Tuesday for the preliminary talks with delegates from the MNLA Tuareg separatist group and the radical Islamist group Ansar Dine. The meeting is being hosted by Burkina Faso.

Mali was once considered one of West Africa's most stable countries, but it plunged into chaos after soldiers overthrew the government in March. MNLA and Ansar Dine rebels took control of the north soon after. Later, Ansar Dine and allied Islamist groups seized full control of the territory from the MNLA.

The U.N. Security Council is weighing a plan backed by the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to send 3,300 troops into northern Mali. And Burkina Faso officials say military action against the Islamist militants in the north remains an option, despite the talks.

In another development, the top U.S. military commander in Africa said al-Qaida and other extremists are strengthening their hold on northern Mali, but cautioned against what he calls "premature" military intervention.

General Carter Ham, head of the U.S. African Command, told a forum in Washington Monday that he thinks any action launched today would not be successful and would ultimately worsen current conditions. Ham promoted the use of negotiations before military intervention.

Ham backed an African-led solution in Mali, highlighting the recent successes of African Union forces and Somali soldiers in recapturing control of parts of Somalia from al-Shabab militants.

Ham added he is most worried about the growing collaboration among violent extremist groups, saying those links are the biggest threat to regional stability. Ham stated that the U.S. has seen "clear indications" of collaboration, including reports that the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram is receiving money, and probably training and explosives from al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

Ham noted that the relationship between Boko Haram and AQIM one that "goes both ways," with likely instances of Boko Haram militants traveling to training camps in northern Mali.

Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.


African Union and Chad press UN over Mali force

(AFP)--N'DJAMENA — The acting head of the African Union and the president of Chad issued a joint call on Tuesday for the United Nations to rapidly authorise an intervention force for Islamist-held northern Mali.

The call came after a meeting between Benin's President Thomas Boni Yayi, acting head of the African Union, his Chad counterpart Idriss Deby as well as Mali's Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra, the Chadian foreign ministry said.

Boni Yayi and Deby appealed to the UN to "authorise urgently the deployment of the international force in Mali" and "call on the international community to use all legal means to find a solution".

The regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has said it is ready to deploy 3,300 men to try to oust the armed Islamists from northern Mali once it has UN approval.

The Islamist groups and Tuareg rebels seized the vast northern region of Mali in the chaotic aftermath of a coup in Bamako in March but the Islamists have since ousted the Tuareg.

Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore, who is mediating in the crisis, was due Tuesday to hold his first meetings with envoys from Bamako and Ansar Dine (Defenders of the Faith) as well as Tuareg rebels of the National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad (MNLA).

Leaders of 15 ECOWAS nations last month adopted a plan to wrest back control of northern Mali and backed the sending of an international force of 3,300 troops for one year.

"It's up to the Malians to tell us as clearly as possible what kind of support they expect from Africa, beyond what has been done by ECOWAS, and what kind of contribution they expect of Chad," Deby told reporters Tuesday.


December 3, 2012, 2:00 PM

Head of Mali terror group quits al Qaeda

BAMAKO, Mali An Algerian-born jihadist who heads one of the most powerful and feared cells of al Qaeda's North African branch has decided to leave the al Qaeda franchise in order to create a movement spanning the entire Sahara desert, said one of his close associates and a local official who had been briefed on the matter on Monday.

Moktar Belmoktar, formerly the head of a cell of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, is one of the most prolific kidnappers operating in Mali's lawless north. He is linked to the abduction of a group of tourists in 2003 in southern Algeria, as well as the top United Nations diplomat in Niger, Robert Fowler, who was grabbed on the side of a road in 2008.

The deputy mayor of a town in the Timbuktu region of northern Mali, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear for his safety, confirmed that AQIM "katiba," or cell, leader Belmoktar had left the al Qaeda franchise. The information was confirmed by Oumar Ould Hamaha, an associate of Belmoktar's, who was reached by telephone at an undisclosed location in northern Mali.

"It's true," said Hamaha. "It's so that we can better operate in the field that we have left this group which is tied to the 'Maghreb' appellation. We want to enlarge our zone of operation throughout the entire Sahara, going from Niger through to Chad and Burkina Faso."

Hamaha said, however, that while he and Belmoktar have left the North African branch, they remain under the orders of al Qaeda central.

AQIM evolved from an Algerian jihadist group, which was pushed by security forces south across the border into Mali in 2003. The group appeared to be floundering, losing members and on the run, until it sealed a deal with al Qaeda's central command, becoming the terror franchise's branch in the Maghreb region of Africa, a term that refers to North African countries including Algeria.

For most of its existence though, AQIM's main base of operation has been inside Mali, which is not a Maghrebian country. Until this spring, the cells operated in the country's deserts, in dense forests and in a system of subterranean caves that recall the terrain of Afghanistan.

Then in April, following a coup in Mali's capital, a mixture of rebel groups including AQIM seized Mali's northern half, giving them de facto control over the cities and allowing them to operate openly.

The announcement indicates that al Qaeda is setting its sights on a larger zone of operation. So far AQIM has conducted raids into Mauritania and Niger, but has not been able to establish long-term bases there. And the terror franchise has never operated in Chad, according to security experts.

In New York this month, diplomats are meeting to discuss plans for a military intervention in order to take back northern Mali. United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has described the presence of these terror groups in northern Mali as a "powder keg."

Jihadi Rebels Attack Key Military Base Near Mali’s Capital

By BABA AHMED

FILE - Col. Assimi Goita meets with a high-level delegation from the West African regional bloc known as ECOWAS, at the Ministry of Defense in Bamako, Mali on Aug. 22, 2020. Explosions and gunfire were heard Friday July 22, 2022 in the area of the Kati military base on the outskirts of Bamako, according to local residents, in a suspected attack by Islamic extremists. Goita frequently stays at the Kati camp, where he launched the 2020 coup that brought him to power. (AP Photo, File)

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Jihadi rebels have attacked Mali’s Kati military base on the outskirts of the capital city Bamako, the ruling junta confirmed Friday.

It’s the first time Kati, Mali’s largest military base, has been hit by extremist rebels in their more than 10-year insurgency in the West African country.

Two vehicles loaded with explosives detonated at the camp at about 5 a.m., according to a statement issued by the military.

“The Malian Armed Forces vigorously repelled a terrorist attack on the Kati barracks,” said the statement, which said that 7 attackers were killed and 8 arrested.

“The terrorists first blew up the vehicles at the entrance to the military camp, then shells were fired at the camp,” said a military official, who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press.

Another group of the jihadis entered the camp on foot and “began burning vehicles parked in the camp, and then the attackers stole two army vehicles,” he said.

Friday’s attack on the Kati barracks base follows a coordinated series of insurgent attacks Thursday. In one of those incidents, the extremists attacked a police base in Kolokani, 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of Bamako and two Malian soldiers were killed, said the military in an earlier statement.

The leader of Mali’s ruling junta Lt. Col. Assimi Goita frequently stays at the Kati camp, where he launched the 2020 coup that brought him to power.

Jihadi rebels linked to al Qaida and the Islamic State group have been gaining ground in their decade-long insurgency. Their attacks have mostly been in northern Mali but recently the extremists have moved into central Mali. This month they’ve moved closer to the capital.

Last week gunmen attacked an army checkpoint about 60 kilometers (37 miles) outside Bamako, killing at least six people and wounding several others, officials said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but they appear to be by the al-Qaida-linked group known as JNIM.

The attacks show “how the al-Qaida affiliate Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin continues to expand its operations outside its traditional strongholds in northern and central Mali,” said Héni Nsaibia, a senior researcher at The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.

“As in other Sahelian countries such as Burkina Faso and Niger ... major cities including the capitals themselves, are increasingly surrounded by a steady spread of Islamist militancy that poses an ever-increasing risk and challenge to the security environment.”

Mali has struggled to contain the Islamic extremist insurgency since 2012. Extremist rebels took control of Mali’s northern cities but were then forced out with the help of a French-led military operation. The jihadis regrouped in the desert and began attacking the Malian army and its allies. Insecurity has worsened with attacks in the northern and central regions on military targets, civilians and U.N. peacekeepers.

The U.N. force has said more than 250 of its peacekeepers and personnel have died since 2013, making Mali the deadliest of the U.N.’s dozen peacekeeping missions worldwide.

Last week the United Nations mission in Mali announced that Egypt will suspend its participation in the peacekeeping force by mid-August, citing deadly attacks. Seven Egyptian peacekeepers have been killed in Mali so far this year, according to officials.

Tensions have grown between Mali’s junta and the U.N. peacekeeping force. Earlier this month the government told the U.N. mission to suspend all flights to move its forces in the country. The government also detained 49 Ivorian soldiers who flew in to help with security for a company contracted by the U.N. mission.

Separately, a European military force that helped fight extremists withdrew from Mali at the end of June. The French military, which spearheaded the Takuba task force, announced the end of its deployment in Mali. The move was tied to France’s decision earlier this year to withdraw troops from Mali after nine years helping Malian forces fight the extremists.

The European force was composed of several hundred special forces troops from 10 countries: Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, and Sweden. It aimed at training and protecting Malian combat forces.

The exit of the European troops and tensions with the U.N. peacekeeping force come as Mali’s junta has grown closer to Russia with the Wagner Group, a private Russian mercenary force, sending fighters to Mali.

The attacks this week were condemned by the U.N. special representative in Mali, El-Ghassim Wane.

“I offer my condolences to the government and people of Mali as well as to the families and loved ones of the fallen soldiers. I wish a speedy recovery to the injured,” he said in statement Friday.

The U.N. mission in Mali will continue “to support and accompany the efforts of the Malian authorities aimed at restoring lasting peace and security,” he said.

Fighting Erupts In Timbuktu Involving French and Malian Forces

France is currently bombing the West African state of Mali. They are claiming that the Islamist groups in the north are an international threat., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Fighting erupts after car bombing in Mali

4:48pm EDT
By Tiemoko Diallo

BAMAKO (Reuters) - Malian soldiers backed by French fighter jets battled Islamist rebels in Timbuktu on Sunday after insurgents used a car bomb as cover to infiltrate the northern desert town, sources said.

The French-led offensive in Mali has pushed a mix of Islamists out of their northern strongholds and remote mountain bases but the militants have hit back with several suicide attacks and guerilla-style raids.

At least one Malian soldier was killed and four injured in Sunday's fighting in the ancient Saharan trading hub 1,000 km (600 miles) north of the capital Bamako, according to a Mali government communique issued on Sunday evening.

It said that 21 Islamist rebels were also killed.
"It started after a suicide car bombing around 2200, that served to distract the military and allow a group of jihadists to infiltrate the city by night," said Mali army Captain Modibo Naman Traore.

Bilal Toure, a member of Timbuktu's crisis committee set up after the town was recaptured from Islamist control in January, said he saw a French plane firing on the rebel positions. He said fighting had died down since nightfall.

"The situation settled down after around 1900 but everyone is still staying indoors," he said.

The attack reflected the challenge of securing Mali as France prepares to reduce its troop presence and hand over to the ill-equipped Malian army and a more than 7,000-strong regional African force.

Mali's defense ministry said on Saturday that two Nigerian soldiers in the regional African force were killed when their convoy struck a mine outside Ansongo, near the Niger border.

France launched its intervention in Mali in January to halt an advance by northern al Qaeda-linked rebels towards Bamako.
President Francois Hollande said on Thursday that France will reduce its troop numbers in Mali to 2,000 by July and to 1,000 by the end of the year, down from 4,000 at present.

The West African former colony is to hold presidential and legislative elections in July - vital steps to stabilizing the gold- and cotton-producer after a military coup a year ago paved the way for the northern rebel takeover.

(Reporting by Tiemoko Diallo and Adama Diarra; Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Stephen Powell)


French, Mali troops fight street battles with Islamists in Timbuktu

(AFP)

BAMAKO — French and Malian troops battled Islamist fighters in the city of Timbuktu in day-long clashes Sunday that left three jihadists and one Malian soldier dead, military sources said.

The Islamists began their assault with a suicide bomb attack on an army checkpoint late Saturday on the edge of the fabled Saharan city that left a Malian soldier wounded.

Militants then infiltrated the city, which French and Malian soldiers recaptured from Islamist rebels in January.

Malian troops battled the rebels and were later joined by a French unit of around 50 soldiers and got further back-up from French fighter jets. A French soldier was wounded in the fighting, the military said in Paris.
Battles continued as night fell on Sunday.

"Jihadists have infiltrated the centre of Timbuktu... Our men are fighting them with the support of a unit of our French partners," a Malian officer told AFP by telephone.

The officer said fighting began when the Islamist rebels opened fire on two sides of the centre of the city, targeting a hotel serving as the temporary residence for the region's governor as well as a Malian military base.

A Malian security source said the governor and two foreign journalists had been among the people evacuated from the targeted hotel.

The fighting left three jihadists and one Malian soldier dead, officials said.

An army source requesting anonymity said a Nigerian hostage died during a shoot-out between Malian troops and his captor -- an Islamist rebel seen wearing a bomb-belt who had holed up in a house in the northern part of the city.

Mali has been the target of a series of attacks claimed by Islamist insurgents since France launched a military intervention in January against Al-Qaeda-linked groups that had seized the north of the country.

The French-led operation has forced the extremists from the cities they seized in the chaotic aftermath of Mali's military coup in March 2012.

But French and African forces have faced continuing suicide blasts and guerrilla attacks in reclaimed territory.

On March 21, a suicide bomber blew up a car near the Timbuktu airport at the start of an overnight assault on the city.

The blast killed one Malian soldier. Around 10 Islamist fighters were killed in the ensuing fighting with French and Malian forces.

The attack was claimed by the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), one of three Islamist groups that had seized the north.

MUJAO said it had "opened a new front in Timbuktu", which had not come under attack since French-led forces entered the city on January 28 -- unlike Gao, which has been hit by a string of suicide bombings and guerrilla attacks.

A landmine blast killed two Malian soldiers near Gao on Saturday.

The same day, Mali's interim leader Dioncounda Traore appointed Mohamed Salia Sokona -- a former government minister and retired ambassador -- to head a new commission tasked with fostering reconciliation in the conflict-torn west African nation.

Aside from its chairman and two vice-chairmen -- who were also named -- the commission will have another 30 members.

France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who is due to visit Mali on April 5, on Sunday welcomed the first appointments made to the Dialogue and Reconciliation Commission, calling it "an important step toward political reconciliation".


French troops seize 7 tons of firearms from Mali rebels

March 30, 2013 20:23
RT.com

French troops have seized seven tons of looted and smuggled army weapons from rebels in a raid in northeastern Mali. Three tons of hand grenades, ammunition for firearms, mortars, and anti-tank missiles were handed to the Malian army.

The arsenal was seized in the Ifoghas Mountains, where French and African troops have been tracking rebel fighters.

The weapons were sorted by French experts prior to delivery and only some of them proved to be operational, said the French Colonel Jean Frederick, AFP reports.

"Only 15-20 percent of weapons found can be recovered and used in the future for other purposes without life risk. The rest will be destroyed so they don’t pose a threat to the civilians," said Frederick, who is responsible for the provision of French troops in Mali.

The majority of these weapons were looted from government military bases and smuggled into Mali from other African countries.

According to UN reports thousands of firearms have been illegally trafficked to other African nations from Libya after the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi regime in 2011.

Russian president Vladimir Putin previously raised concerns about the Malian crisis directly connecting it with the military solution of the Libyan uprising.

“Upheaval in Libya, accompanied by the uncontrolled proliferation of arms, contributed to the deterioration of the situation in Mali,” Putin said at the end of January.

Former US Secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s words on the matter echoed Putin’s standpoint. During Clinton’s hearing on the September 11, 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee drew a line between Libya and the on-going conflict in Mali saying “…There is no doubt that the Malian remnants of AQIM [Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb] have weapons from Libya."

France launched the intervention in Mali in January after the escalation of a crisis between government and Islamist insurgents who took over the north of the country a year ago. The French army succeeded in driving the Islamists out of the main northern cities. French troops are still stationed in Mali though there have been talks of troop withdrawal after the Islamists’ were out of the country. President Francois Hollande said on Friday that French troops will stay in Mali to fight Islamist militants at least through the end of 2013 until a legitimate government can take over. Though he added that he expected more than 4,000 French troops in Mali to pull out in late April.

France’s role in the Mali rebellion is disputed, senior editor of the Executive Intelligence Review, Jeff Steinberg, previously told RT in an interview.

“The rebel operations in northern Mali have existed for quite some time, but it was only in the aftermath of the overthrow of the Gaddafi government in Libya – which was promoted by France, Britain and the United States in particular – it was only after that that you had a massive flow of weapons out of Libya into the hands of the rebels, which basically took a low-intensity conflict and threw it into a much greater crisis where the rebels outgunned the Malian army,” Steinberg told RT.


Sunday, 31 March 2013 KSA 09:21 - GMT 06:21

Mali Tuaregs say nine killed in battle with jihadists

Clashes in northern Mali between a Tuareg separatist group and jihadist fighters have left nine dead, Tuareg officials said Saturday.

The fighting pitted Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist groups against the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) -- a secular separatist Tuareg group that currently supports the government.

“After the fighting, we recorded four dead and two wounded in our own ranks... There were five dead on their side,” Mohamed Ibrahim Ag Assaleh, a top MNLA official based in neighboring Burkina Faso, told AFP.

Mossa Ag Attaher, an MNLA leader based in the northern Malian city of Kidal, added that one jihadist fighter was captured by his men.

The fighting lasted about two hours, they said, and took place on Friday between Gao and Kidal, two of the three main cities in northern Mali, which was under Islamist control for nine months until France intervened in January.

According to the Tuareg officials, the five Islamist fighters included three Algerians, a Mauritanian and one Malian.

The two MNLA officials disagreed however on their opponents' affiliation.

One said they were from the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa and the other said they belonged to “Signatories In Blood,” a group recently founded by a former Qaeda chief, Mokhtar Belmokhtar.

Many former Tuareg rebels who had worked as mercenaries in Libya returned to Mali bristling with weapons after Muammar Qaddafi’s demise in late 2011 and rekindled their decades-old struggle for independence.

The MNLA launched a military offensive in January 2012 and conquered the entire north but was soon overpowered by its allies from the Qaeda-linked groups based in the region.

The secular Tuareg group has since sided with the Malian government and the French forces leading the re-conquest. Its forces have engaged jihadist groups on several occasions in recent months.

No source among the jihadist networks being hunted down in northern Mali could be immediately reached to confirm Friday’s clashes.


28 March 2013
Last updated at 19:30 ET

Mali conflict: Hollande sets French troop timetable

France will reduce the number of its troops fighting in Mali to 1,000 by the end of the year, President Francois Hollande says.

"We have achieved our objectives," Mr Hollande said in a TV interview.

He said troop levels would be halved to 2,000 by July. Withdrawals are due to start next month.

A French-led intervention that began in January has taken back the main cities of northern Mali from Islamist groups, though fighting continues in the north.

Mr Hollande acknowledged that one goal, the release of six French hostages being held in the Sahel, had still not been achieved.

He stressed that France would not pay ransoms to get the hostages freed. It is feared that one of the hostages has already been killed.

The French president also said he was determined that Mali should hold elections as planned in July, though he said France would not back any favoured candidate.

"The time when France chose African heads of state is over," he told France 2 TV channel in a wide-ranging interview.

Islamist groups took over major cities, including Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu, in the aftermath of a coup in March 2012. They imposed a strict form of Islamic law in the area.

France intervened after saying the al-Qaeda-linked militants threatened to march on the capital, Bamako.

Troops from several West African countries have been deploying to Mali to take over from the French-led mission.

The African force currently numbers about 6,300 soldiers.

Mr Hollande said the French troops left in Mali at the end of the year would probably be part of a UN peacekeeping mission that France has called on the Security Council to set up.


Tough EU mission to overhaul Mali army kicks off

As France prepares to withdraw its 4,000 troops, the first of four Malian battalions begins training with battle-hardened European instructors on April 2

Sun, Mar 31, 2013
AFP

BRUSSELS - The EU begins an ambitious top-to-toe overhaul Tuesday of Mali's ragtag army, far from ready to take the place of foreign troops to defend the West African nation against fresh attacks by Islamist insurgents.

As France prepares to withdraw its 4,000 troops after routing Al Qaeda-linked forces from northern cities, the first of four Malian battalions begins training with battle-hardened European instructors on April 2 as part of a wider effort to bring the army up to scratch as quickly as possible.

"Objectively, it must be entirely rebuilt," said French General Francois Lecointre, who heads the European Union Training Mission in Mali (EUTM).

Underpaid, ill-equipped and riven by divisions, Mali's armed forces fell apart last year when well-armed Islamist extremists seized the country's vast northern reaches, imposing Sharia law and terrorising locals.

Today no one knows exactly how many soldiers are left, probably around 6,000 - about half of which will train with the EUTM over the next year.

"The Malian authorities are well aware of the need to reconstruct the army, very aware that Mali almost disappeared due to the failings of the institution," said General Lecointre.

Class is at a dusty green-shuttered military academy 60 kilometres (40 miles) from the capital, Bamako, its grounds now packed with rows of EU-supplied troop transport vehicles, a field hospital, tents, and trunk-loads of equipment.

After 10 weeks of training, the first 670 Malians are expected to be ready for combat by end June/early July and deployed to northern Mali, where French and Chadian troops are still on the lookout for pockets of jihadist fighters.

The French are to hand over to an African force of 6,300 likely to come under a UN mandate in the coming weeks. But UN leader Ban Ki-Moon said last week that up to 11,200 troops were needed as well as a second "parallel" force.

While mission commander Lecointre expects the last batch of Malian soldiers to graduate in early 2014, he says the EUTM - running on a budget of 12.3 million euros (S$19.6 million) - may have to be extended.

Speaking in Bamako, Mali Defence Minister Yamoussa Camara deemed the 15-month mission "too short" but said it "will enable the training of a core of instructors who will be able to continue training others."

A major issue, according to Lecointre, is the army's poor and "heterogenous" equipment, made up of materiel donated by richer nations over two decades.

"Mali accepted equipment from any country offering but it doesn't function as a whole and often can be either obsolete or over-sophisticated."

EU nations were ready to donate equipment but too often "are inclined to give equipment they no longer want, whilst we are seeking above all to avoid receiving a patchwork of weaponry," he added.

The bigger problem however is the army's lack of a clear hierarchy and chain of command, with no "esprit de corps". "The army is very unstructured," Lecointre said, with soldiers more often than not banding together for one-off missions and not training.

A total 23 EU nations are taking part in the 550-strong EU mission, including 200 trainers, a protection force of 150, another 150 providing medical and logistical support, and 50 administrative staff.

France, which sent troops to its former colony in January to block an advance on the capital by the extremists, is the lead country in the mission, followed by Germany, Spain, the Czech Republic, Britain and Belgium. Lithuania is taking part in such an operation for the first time.

In February, the EUTM sent a score of officers to Bamako to take stock of the state of the armed forces. A plan was submitted to the local authorities in March on how to rebuild the army which will also be drilled in relations with civil society and protection of human rights.

Once trained, each of the four Mali battalions will have a unified command with an infantry-mobile core, backed by artillery and engineering, and a logistics component.

Mali News Update: AU Adds Sanctions to Mali; Thousands Flee Northern Region

A map of the West African state of Mali illustrating Timbuktu, Bomako and Hombori. Mali has an ancient history of culture and civilization., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

African Union adds to sanctions in Mali

By the CNN Wire Staff
2012-04-03T04:30:20Z

(CNN) -- International pressure built Tuesday for leaders of the military group that seized power last month from Mali's democratically elected president to restore the nation to civilian rule.

The African Union said Tuesday it will impose more sanctions on the country, one day after the Economic Community of West African States slapped the ruling military junta with travel and economic restrictions after last month's coup.

The AU supports the sanctions imposed by the ECOWAS in Mali and "further decided to impose their own sanctions, with asset freezes and travel bans against leaders of the military junta and all those involved in contributing to the 'destabilization' of Mali," said Ramtane Lamamra, commissioner for peace and security.

The AU also condemned recent attacks in the north by Tuarag rebel groups and declared "null and void" any of their statements or demands, adding them and all those involved in attacks in the region to the sanctions imposed.

On Monday, ECOWAS imposed a travel ban on the coup leaders and imposed a diplomatic and financial embargo that regional leaders discussed last week, ECOWAS Chairman Alassane Ouattara said.

"All diplomatic, economic, financial measures and others are applicable from today and will not be lifted until the re-establishment of constitutional order," said Ouattara, Ivory Coast's president.

He said ECOWAS leaders will meet again this week in Ivory Coast's main city of Abidjan to discuss the possible activation of troops from member states.

ECOWAS had given the officers until Monday to hand over power or face sanctions.

Under the sanctions, the five neighboring ECOWAS members will close their borders to landlocked Mali except for humanitarian purposes. Its member states are to deny Mali access to their ports, freeze Mali's accounts in regional banks and suspend Mali's participation in cultural and sporting events.

Hours after ECOWAS' announcement, the U.S. Department of State announced that it was imposing sanctions on travel to the United States on those people "who block Mali's return to civilian rule and a democratically elected government" and on their immediate relatives. Included are "those who actively promote Captain Amadou Sanogo and the National Committee for the Restoration of Democracy, who seized power from democratically elected President Amadou Toumani Toure on March 21," it said in a statement.

The United States released a statement earlier Tuesday in support of the West African states, saying it is "deeply concerned about the ongoing political crisis in Mali."

"We also urge all armed rebels to engage in dialogue with civilian leaders in (the capital city of) Bamako to find a nonviolent path forward for national elections and a peaceful coexistence," said Victoria Nuland, spokeswoman for the State Department.

The department warned U.S. citizens against all travel to the country and authorized the departure of non-emergency personnel and all eligible relatives.

Senou International Airport in Bamako remained open but "the availability of flights in the future is unpredictable and depends on the overall security situation," the department said in a statement.

Before Tuareg and Islamic rebels took control of northern Mali, it had been hailed as a shining example of African democracy, having experienced more than 20 years of democratic government. The impoverished country now has no access to the sea and is heavily dependent on foreign aid.

The coup leaders pledged Sunday to hold talks toward the establishment of a transitional government, which they said would organize "peaceful, free open and democratic elections in which we will not participate." But the statement did not specify when the talks or the elections would be held.

"The measures taken by the junta are in the right direction, but are not sufficient," Ouattara said Monday.

Amnesty International has raised concerns about the safety of civilians in the area, citing reports of violence and looting.

The warning came as international pressure increased on the military junta that grabbed power last month in Bamako.

The Tuareg, who seek a separate homeland in northern Mali, announced over the weekend that they had seized control of the northern regional capitals of Timbuktu and Gao, a major blow to the military government. Both towns are hundreds of miles north of Bamako.

"The armed groups who seized these towns in the last three days must ensure human rights abuses do not occur and where they do, they must take action and remove anyone implicated from their ranks," Gaetan Mootoo, Amnesty's West Africa researcher, said in a statement on the organization's website.

The Islamist group Ansar Dine seized control of Timbuktu after the military stepped down on Monday, said Yehye Tandina, a broadcaster in the city.

The streets of Timbuktu were quiet Tuesday, though the city was cut off from the rest of the world; shops and banks had been looted. "We are surviving on hope," Tandina said. "In reality, there is nothing in Timbuktu."

Military officers led by Sanogo seized power on March 22, overthrowing President Amadou Toumani Toure. The junta said Toure had failed to properly equip soldiers battling the growing Tuareg insurgency.

Moussa Ag Assarid, a spokesman for the main Tuareg rebel group, the National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad, has said the group now "controls all of northern Mali."

"We are proud and ready to declare our homeland free from the south," he said. "Now the MLNA wants a nation."

Amnesty said it had received reports from witnesses in Gao of armed men looting homes and a hospital.

"The looting must be halted to ensure that the civilian population can safely go about their lives," said Amnesty's Mootoo.

In another northern city, Kidal, residents were fleeing their homes, Amnesty reported. According to the organization, more than 200,000 people had fled the north of Mali since the Tuareg uprising began in January.

Timbuktu was a thriving commercial hub and a center of Islamic scholarship in the 14th and 15th centuries, and it's home to three clay mosques that date back more than 700 years. The U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization urged the combatants to avoid damage to the sites, which were added to the agency's World Heritage List in 1988.

"UNESCO stands ready to share its expertise and experience to help Mali ensure the safeguarding of Timbuktu," Director-General Irina Bokova said in a statement Monday.

CNN's Joseph Netto and Journalists Nick Loomis and Tom Walsh contributed to this report


Tuareg non-combatants flee Mali fighting

03/04 15:43 CET

Many refugees have fled northern Mali for Mauritania. There are some 200,000 like them who have left Mali, going to the countries around it. One of the relatively safe havens is Niger. The danger brought by the Tuareg offensive drove Zoulfa and her four children there.

Zoulfa said: “We are nomads so we move and live in different places. Where we were, in our village, armed men attacked and came to steal our belongings, so we decided to leave. We joined a nomad camp, but we were still attacked.”

The northern Mali region of Azawad is populated by Tuareg tribes who have traditionally moved across borders freely, sometimes over great distances.

These three million people or so live mostly in Mali, speaking one of the Berber languages: Tamachec. They are Sunni Muslims.

The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) wants to set up an independent secular republic in this part of Mali.

Mauritania-based leader Hama Ag Mahmoud said: “The MNLA does not have any link with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), and none with the Islamist group Ansar Dine. They are jihadist movements, Islamist movements. Ours is a secular movement whose ambition is to deal in the best possible way with the interest of Azawad.”

The Tuareg rebels launched their offensive against the Malian Army In mid-January, many of the Tuaregs having fought for Libyan ex-leader Muammar Gaddafi. Previous Tuareg rebellions were put down by Mali. Now sufficiently re-armed, they moved to establish supremacy in Azawad.

But they have to contend with other groups active across this vast expanse, where states have little control over those such as the jihadists of AQIM and Ansar Dine, which is led by a former Tuareg rebel, Iyad Ag Ghaly.

It is feared that the fighting could damage the World Heritage Site of Timbuktu, nearly 1,000 years old. It is home to a unique style of mud and wood architecture, and hundreds of thousands of ancient manuscripts, including Arabic Islamic writing, science, maths and history, whose knowledge represents a tangible challenge to western misconceptions about this part of Africa.


UNHCR deeply concerned by deteriorating situation in Mali

03 Apr 2012 13:38

GENEVA, April 3 (UNHCR) - The UN refugee agency said Tuesday it is "deeply concerned" by the deteriorating political and security situation in Mali, where thousands of people continue to flee their homes.

"The north of the country is becoming more and more dangerous due to the proliferation of armed groups in the region," UNHCR's chief spokesperson Melissa Fleming said. "Refugees pouring into neighbouring countries are reporting the presence of armed militiamen and home guards units set up by local communities to defend themselves," she added.

Fleming told journalists in Geneva that more than 2,000 people had fled to Burkina Faso and Mauritania over the past five days because of the insecurity and the political instability stemming from the military coup of 22 March in Mali.

Malian refugees have been crossing into Burkina Faso and Mauritania at an average rate of 400 people per day in the past week. The majority of the refugees are Tuaregs, but there are also ethnic Peuls, Arabs and Bambara.

Malians fleeing to Mauritania are mainly from the Timbuktu region, while those heading to Burkina Faso come from Gao and Timbuktu. Most tell UNHCR staff that they fled because they were worried about armed robbers and feared there would be more heavy fighting in the north, while some said they left their homes due to lack of food.

Others told UNHCR teams that they decided to leave Mali when hopes for a negotiated peace between the government and Tuareg rebels in the north faded after the coup. The displacement crisis in Mali began in January after fighting erupted between government troops and the rebels. To date, the violence has uprooted more than 200,000 people, including around 100,000 who have fled the country.

The refugees also tell of armed men taking cars, money and other personal belongings from people fleeing towards Burkina Faso. They say that large numbers of Malians are on the way to Burkina Faso and Mauritania.

Meanwhile, the number of Malians crossing into Niger appears to have dropped recently. UNHCR has only heard of one group of 300 people crossing last week into Niger and seeking shelter in the village of Ayrou. UNHCR staff are monitoring the border with local authorities.

"We are stepping up our assistance to Malian refugees across the Sahel region who face acute water and food shortages," Fleming said. "We'd like to reiterate that UNHCR is committed to helping neighbouring countries and host communities which have been providing safety and shelter to the refugees despite these shortages and the difficult conditions."

The influx of large numbers of mostly nomadic refugees and their cattle is straining the limited resources in many arrival areas. We are working with specialized agencies to rehabilitate wells and boreholes across the region to benefit the refugees and host communities.

Of the 200,000 people displaced by the fighting, more than 23,000 have found shelter in Burkina Faso, 46,000 are in Mauritania and a further 25,000 are being hosted in Niger, together with nearly 2,000 Niger nationals who had been living in Mali for decades. More than 93,000 people believed to be internally displaced in Mali.

The situation has worsened since the Tuareg fighters captured several big towns in the north last week, preventing UNHCR and other aid agencies from reaching those in need of assistance. UNHCR is calling on all parties to refrain from any action that could put fleeing populations in danger or hamper their movement to safer areas.


Mali's Tuareg-Uranium Conspiracy

By Moeen Raoof
Global Research, April 3, 2012

The recent Coup in Mali by a Army Officer Captain while all the Generals, Brigadiers, Colonels and Majors are nowhere to be seen or heard should not be seen in isolation or simplistically.

The Tuaregs living in Northern Mali, Northern Niger, Southern Algeria and southern Libya are a Nomadic Pastoral People with no ambitions for statehood, only recognition of their particular culture and freedom to travel without hindrance in the Saharan Region.

The conflict in Libya has had a devastating effect in Niger and Mali where the nomadic Tuareg peoples in the Sahara Desert regions of northern Niger and Mali and southern Libya have been involved in a spate of kidnappings and armed uprisings known as the ‘Tuareg rebellion’. This is especially dangerous for northern Niger in and around the town of Arlit, an industrial town located in the Agadez region, where uranium is mined by French companies in two large uranium mines (Arlit and Akouta).

Arlit was the subject of the Niger uranium forgeries when President George W. Bush, in the build-up to the (illegal) Iraq war, in his 2003 State of the Union address stated, ‘The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa,’ when it was alleged that Saddam Hussein had attempted to purchase ‘yellowcake’ uranium powder from Niger during the Iraq disarmament crisis.

These 16 words and the intelligence in this regard were later found to be baseless and rubbished by US intelligence agencies, albeit too late for innocent Iraqis who lost their lives over a lie during the war years.

Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who travelled to Niger to investigate the Iraq/yellowcake plot, concluded that it was highly doubtful that any such transaction had ever taken place, thus clearing Saddam Hussein of any re-starting of Iraq’s WMD (weapons of mass destruction) programme. Ambassador Wilson was punished for this by the outing of his wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA agent, allegedly by an official working in then vice-president Dick Cheney’s Oofice in the White House, which was also the plot of the movie ‘Fair Game’ released in 2010.

Put simply, this is about Uranium to be found in the Tuareg areas of Mali, Niger and Libya, the next step will be UN/ECOWAS/NATO Peace-keepers, Military intervention and killing of thousands of Tuaregs.

Moeen Raoof is a Humanitarian & Emergency Aid Consultant and Conflict Analyst. He undertook an investigation of the Bush Yellowcake/Iraq claim prior to the Iraq invasion by traveling to Niger at the same time as Ambassador Wilson's Mission. ,