What to Make of Foreign Fighters in Mali?
As always a thorough analytical comment on al-Wasat, with multiple links, on this many faceted issue:http://thewasat.wordpress.com/2012/1...hters-in-mali/
I was curious to note the reports of fighters moving to Mali from Tindouf, a city in western Algeria, better known as the base for the secular nationalist group Polisario. There are thousands of trained, experienced fighters there and their families (in exile from Western Sahara, now absorbed into Morocco).
IISS on Extremism spreads across West Africa and the Sahel
The latest Strategic Comment, a broad brush so wider than Mali & The Sahel:http://www.iiss.org/publications/str...and-the-sahel/
ECOWAS Strikes Back : Taking Mali
Not the latest Disney blockbuster, but worthy of it's own thread. Get your popcorn ready now, 'cause these guys won't be home by Christmas.
Quote:
West African regional leaders have agreed to deploy 3,300 soldiers to Mali to retake the north from Islamist extremists. At a summit of Ecowas, the group's chairman said it was ready to use force to "dismantle terrorist and transnational criminal networks". The soldiers would be provided mainly by Nigeria, Niger and Burkina Faso.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20292797
Time's grade school level backgrounder -
Mali’s Looming War: Will Military Intervention Drive Out the Islamists?
Read more: http://world.time.com/2012/11/12/mal...#ixzz2C1y3KMr6
A slow road to intervention
The heralded ECOWAS intervention does appear to be a rather slow process. Assembly of contributions, movement into Mali, re-equipping and training of the Malian military, negotiations with some of the militants and an EU training mission.
Quote:
Any foreign-backed offensive to retake control of northern Mali from al Qaeda-linked Islamists will take at least six months to prepare, plans seen by Reuters show, a delay that runs counter to the expectations of many Malians.
Links, text from:http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...8AF0SD20121116 and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20342369
The Challenges of Retaking Northern Mali
CTC Sentinel's leading story:http://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/the-ch...-northern-mali
Quote:
This article will show why northern Mali is prone to rebellion. It will then explain how the state has supported militias to quell these frequent uprisings, argue that the state might re-employ that same strategy to unseat Islamist militants in the north, and identify what results an international military intervention might bring.
It is really a primer on the challenges and is dismissive of international action.
There is a second, longer article 'An Algerian Press Review: Determining Algiers’ Position on an Intervention in Mali' looks at:
Quote:
According to many press accounts, while Algeria reportedly still favors a “political solution” to the crisis in Mali, it now appears that Algiers will participate in an international intervention within specified parameters and discretion. Algerian media reports remain divided, however, over whether military intervention is desirable, and several articles suggest that while Algiers has identified political processes it favors with respect to Mali, it has yet to decide on a desired end state from negotiations or military action.
Link:http://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/an-alg...ention-in-mali
Mali: Disaster Needs Analysis
Hat tip to Cimicweb newsletter for a pointer to a very comprehensive human security briefing, which is IMHO a "one stop" primer on everything:http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb...y_nov_2012.pdf
Northern Mali: the Politics of Ethnicity and Locality
An article by Andrew Lebovich, a Dakar-based researcher focused on security and political issues in the Sahel and North Africa:http://thinkafricapress.com/mali/pol...ity-mali-mujao
Rightly he mentions two factors, one which is given little attention - the Malian army - and the history of local militias, which has appeared here before:
Quote:
Mali’s army continues its halting movement towards reorganisation alongside a group of citizen and sectarian militias with past involvement in northern Mali. These militias, which include new iterations of the Ganda Koy (“Masters of the Land”) and the Ganda Iso (“Sons of the Land”), bring to the fore the possibility of ethnic violence and retribution in any operation to retake northern Mali. Already, observers describe the language employed by some militia members as “quasi-genocidal” toward ‘light-skinned’ populations like Tuareg and Arabs, recalling the bloody violence perpetrated by similar militias during rebellions in the 1990s and 2000s.
Northern Mali is an ethnically diverse, if sparsely populated, area. Accounting for approximately 10% of Mali's population in an area roughly the size of France, the region encompasses traditionally nomadic and semi-nomadic Tuareg and Arabs, as well as sedentary Songhai, Peul, Bella, and others.