US council on Foreign Relations
reports on terrorists in Mali.
Concerns
are growing that terrorist groups in Mali are increasing in numbers and
strength.
Since
the November 2015 kidnapping and mass shooting at a luxury hotel in Mali’s capital, Bamako, attacks
have expanded to neighboring countries. In March 2016, a shooting at a beach
resort in Ivory
Coast killed nineteen civilians. In June 2017, there was yet another attack on
a tourist resort outside of Bamako.
Jihadist
groups such as al-Mourabitoun, a branch of al-Qaeda in the Islamic
Maghreb (AQIM)
that primarily comprises northern Malians and ethnic Tuaregs, have tried to
derail the June 2015 peace agreement between the Coordination of Azawad
Movements, the Malian government, and a coalition of Tuareg rebel groups.
As
a result of the deteriorating security situation, the U.S. Department of State
first warned its citizens in December 2015 against traveling to Mali and
authorized the departure of nonemergency personnel from the U.S. embassy.
In
September 2016, Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita warned the United Nations that terrorism and
crime was spreading from the northern part of the country to the center, and
due to the slow implementation of the peace deal, groups affiliated with
al-Qaeda and the so-called Islamic State were at risk of expanding.
Background
- After gaining
independence from France in 1960, Mali endured thirty years of sporadic
fighting and political coups. While the majority of the population resides in
the southern region, numerous militant groups including the Tuareg, AQIM, and
Ansar Dine—a militant Islamist group—continue to assert territorial claims in
the northern part of the country, undermining the government and threatening to
destabilize neighboring countries.
The
Tuareg, a primarily Berber ethnic group, have rebelled against the government
and clashed with other groups several times in an attempt to gain autonomy for
the region they call Azawad.
The
first Tuareg rebellion began in 1963, lasting less than a year before it
was brutally suppressed by government forces. Divisions
between Tuareg clans hindered their ability to fight together against the
government. In the decades that followed the first rebellion, government policies
tended to neglect northern Mali, which was already fragile due to a series of
droughts.
Many
Tuareg moved into aid camps in the south or crossed into neighboring countries
to find work. Hundreds of Tuareg moved to Libya, where they fought abroad on
behalf of Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi’s Islamic Legion. After Qaddafi’s Islamic Legion
was disbanded in the late 1980’s many Tuareg began to
return to northern Mali.
The
different Tuareg clans decided to consolidate their efforts in the fight
against the government and in June 1990 launched a second rebellion. In 1992, Mali
country held its first democratic and multiparty election. Despite apparent political progress,
the fight in the north between the Tuareg and the military dragged on. Several
peace accords were signed in an effort to stabilize relations between the
Tuareg and Arab groups, but none were implemented
successfully.
In
2012, a military coup carried out by the Malian army created a power vacuum
that allowed militant groups such as Ansar Dine, the Movement for Unity and
Jihad in West Africa, and AQIM to gain territory in northern Mali. A
pro-autonomy Tuareg group—the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad
(MNLA)—initially allied with
radical Islamist organizations in
order to establish control in the north, but violence soon erupted within this
short-lived alliance as each group competed for territory. In August 2013,
sixteen months after the military coup and a month after yet another peace deal
was brokered with the Tuareg, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was voted into the
presidency in an
election that was ultimately praised for its transparency by the EU and African Union.
The UN Multidimensional Integrated
Stabilization Mission in Mali and
military missions led by G5 Sahel countries—Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad,
Mauritania, and Niger—were deployed to combat extremism in the region in April
2013. France has taken the lead in this fight in Mali through Operation
Barkhane, which deployed roughly sixteen hundred French soldiers to protect
civilians and aid local military efforts.
Over
thirteen thousand peacekeepers are working in Mali on what has been called
the United Nation’s most
dangerous mission due to the high number of attacks on peacekeepers.
Despite
increased foreign involvement, some militant groups still maintain control of areas in northern Mali. Other
militant groups have been driven across borders to territory outside of the G5
Sahel mission’s mandate.
Concerns
- The United States has
long supported economic and social programs in Mali, but funding to
the central government was cut off after the 2012 coup. In support of the
French-led mission to combat extremism, the United States established a drone base in neighboring Niger in March 2013
to provide intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance to France and other
partners in the region.
The strengthening of militant groups in Mali or their spread to neighboring countries could allow AQIM to establish a safe haven and destabilize the region through militancy and terrorism. Northern Mali has become a central transit point for young migrants from all over western Africa looking to travel to Algeria or Libya with the ultimate goal of reaching Europe.
The
weak economy and lack of job prospects in northern Mali has led many to turn to
the trafficking and smuggling of migrants and drugs as a primary source of
income. This crisis is both a humanitarian and security concern as militant
groups in the Sahel region often tax the trafficking and
smuggling routes to
fund their violent campaigns.
Mali borders Algeria
and Mauritania in the North African West Sahara. Land area 478,800 square miles, Population 19
million. In 2017 GDP was $40.1 billion and per capita GDP was $2200. Labor
Force was 6.447 million with 80% working in agriculture including cotton, millet, rice, corn, vegetables, peanuts; cattle, sheep, goats.
Unemployment was 8.1% and poverty rate was 36.1%.
In 2017 Exports were
$3 billion with 80% in gold and cotton and 20% in phosphate and other
agricultural products
2017 Imports were $3.9
billion including petroleum, machinery and equipment, construction materials,
foodstuffs, textiles from Senegal 12.2%, China 12.2%, France 10.3%, Benin 8.6%,
Ivory Coast 8.4% (2016)
Government debt was
28% of GDP. Revenue was $3 billion. Spending was $3.6 billion.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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