Saturday, June 30, 2018

Terrorists in Mali N. Africa


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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