Monday, January 21, 2013

WHAT WENT WRONG IN MALI?

Mali was seen, until last year, as one of Africa’s most stable countries. A beacon of democracy and stability on the African continent.
In 1991, students’ led demonstration ended the 23 year dictatorship of General Moussa Traore. In 1992 Alpha Omar Konare elected President of Mali after the military junta accepted to hand over the power to a civilian leader.
Despite the country’s poverty and food shortages due to severe droughts, Mali had a reputation for religion tolerance, a very rich culture and the home of africa’s intellectual center, Timbuktu.
The situation changed in March last year when, once again, the military seized the power, overthrew the elected leadership claiming the president’s handling of the conflict with the rebels in the north as the reason for the coup.
The Tuareg rebellion in the north was quickly hijacked by Islamists and by September 2012 the north of Mali had become the world’s largest territory controlled by al Qaeda linked Jihadists.
The political wrangling in Bamako had created a vacuum and Generals were busy brokering political deals while the Islamists were descending on the capital city, Bamako.
If France hadn’t intervened Bamako would have been taken by the Jihadists in a matter of days. And as previously seen in Somalia, when al-Shabaab took control of Mogadishu in 2006, Bamako would have been the terrorists’ springboard to destabilise the whole region.
I understand that France intervened on the request of the Malian government but I couldn't help wondering why wasn't the request sent to the African Union?

No comments:

Post a Comment