Mali mainly, 2012 coup, drugs & more

[KingJaja]

I'm incredibly tired right now, but I remember something about Mali having had relatively decent governance until a year or two, until a coup d'tat happened.

No, it didn't (if you consider the very real issues that simmered under the surface in the North, but were ignored by both the West and the Southern-led Malian government).

[Fuchs]

No, it didn't (if you consider the very real issues that simmered under the surface in the North, but were ignored by both the West and the Southern-led Malian government).

I'm not sure that the government can be blamed. Desertification was out of their control and largely caused by the people living in the decertifying regions themselves.

Depleted land resources were a reason for Tuareg resentment of the Malian government, in that the Tuareg felt the government did not respond appropriately to the droughts and basically forced them to leave Mali. This resentment contributed to the conflict between the Tuareg and the government in the 1990s.

Over-grazing of the semi-arid lands bordering the Sahara in northern Mali and Niger, combined with widespread droughts in the 1970s and 1980s, led to the desertification of large parts of these areas.

from
The Tuareg in Mali and Niger: The Role of Desertification in Violent Conflict
by Ann Hershkowitz
ICE Case Studies
Number 151, August 2005