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TENSIONS HAVE SURGED in Mali as France and its former colony have become locked in a vicious military struggle over a large part of the vast, landlocked country.
For more than a week, a French military operation has been ongoing against armed Islamist rebels who have controlled the north of the country since April 2012.
Here are the key facts and figures about Mali:
GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION: Mali, a largely desert country which is crossed by the Niger River, is 1,240,000 square kilometres in area. It is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east by Niger, to the south by Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Guinea, to the west by Senegal and to the northwest by Mauritania.
POPULATION: 15.8 million in 2011 (World Bank), 70 percent of whom live in the countryside. Divided into 20 ethnic groups, including the Bambara, Fulani, Marka, Senufo, Soninke, Tuareg, Songhai, Malinke and Dogon.
CAPITAL: Bamako.
LANGUAGES: French is the official language.
RELIGION: Muslim (90 percent), Christian (10 percent).
HISTORY: Formerly a French colony, Mali gained independence on June 20, 1960. The country was run by president Modibo Keita until a coup d’etat in 1968 led by Moussa Traore.
After more than 22 years in power, Traore’s regime was overthrown by an armed insurrection in March 1991 in which dozens were killed.
A Transitional Committee, headed by Lieutenant Colonel Amadou Toumani Toure, ran the country from 1991 until elections in 1992 when Alpha Oumar Konare became the first democratically elected president. He stepped down at the end of two five-year terms in 2002.
Toure then ran for election as an independent and won in 2002. He was reelected in 2007.
On March 22, 2012, mutinous soldiers led by Captain Amadou Sanogo announced they had overthrown the Toure government, saying it had failed to give the armed forces the means to defeat a rebellion by Tuareg rebels and Islamists in the north.
The junta and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) then announced a deal that includes democratic elections. At the same time the Tuaregs and Islamist groups allied to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb occupied the north, declaring independence in the region. Islamists then overcame the Tuaregs and occupied the north, applying an extreme form of Islamic law.
WHAT HAS HAPPENED IN MALI THIS MONTH
January 10:
- Islamists capture the government-held central town of Konna and say they will push farther south.
- Mali’s interim president Dioncounda Traore asks France for help.
- Witnesses say foreign troops and weapons have begun arriving by transport plane at an army base in Sevare, just 70 kilometres south of Konna.
January 11:
- With French support, Malian government troops launch an offensive against Islamist rebels.
- French President Francois Hollande confirms French troops are actively supporting the offensive.
January 12:
- French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announces the death of a French helicopter pilot.
January 13:
- French airstrikes target Islamist bases in the northern regions of Gao and Kidal.
- Four French Rafale fighter jets bomb targets near the town of Gao, which has been controlled by an Al-Qaeda offshoot, destroying rebel training camps and logistical bases, according to Le Drian. More than 60 rebels are killed in Gao and its outskirts, residents say.
- Hollande says the intervention has stopped a southward rebel advance seen as threatening the capital Bamako.
- Algeria has authorised French warplanes to use its airspace for bombing raids on Mali, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius says.
January 14:
- Rebels abandon key northern bases. Residents in the towns of Gao, Douentza and Timbuktu report all Islamists have fled, though a rebel spokesman calls it a “tactical retreat.”
- However, Islamists seize the town of Diabaly in government-held territory, 400 kilometres north of the capital. They vow to “strike at the heart of France.”
- Ethnic-Tuareg separatists say they are ready to support France by taking on Islamist rebels on the ground.
January 15
- France engages for the first time ground troops to retake Diabaly. Hundreds of soldiers from France and Mali head to the town, which witnesses say is bombarded by French fighter planes. Le Drian says the Malian army has not regained control of Konna, after the Malian army announced on January 12 that they had taken the town.
- Speaking in Dubai, Hollande says the French intervention has three objectives — “ending terrorists attacks,” as well as “securing Bamako where we have thousands of citizens and help Mali to restore its territorial integrity.”
- Some 2,500 French troops are to be deployed for Operation Serval.
January 16
- French troops battle rebels in Diabaly. Le Drian says the western zone where Diabaly lies is home to “the toughest, most fanatical and best-organised groups.”
- Islamist fighters claim to have taken 41 foreigners hostage in a retaliatory attack in neighbouring Algeria.
- West African army chiefs met in Bamako to fine tune plans to send African troops to join the offensive.
January 17
- French warplanes continue to pound Islamist militant targets in Mali around Diabaly.
- Confusion abounds over the fate of the hostages being held in the gas field compound in Algeria
January 18
- French troops seize Konna, a key city in the central region of Mali, from the rebels.
- Hundreds of hostages are freed by militants holding them at the Algerian gas facility but around 30 foreign workers were still unaccounted for as of Friday evening.
(Tank photo: AP Photo/Harouna Traore)
I wonder if someone did take him out 30 years ago, would Zimbabwe be the basket case he turned it into, or would some other “leader”, equally malingnant have just taken his place.
It’s tempting to write Africa off, but these things are not inevitable. The neighbours in Botswana were a landlocked, diamond rich former colony. Not an obvious candidate for success. And yet they were, partly because of Seretse Khama’s leadership, but also because people kept voting for him.
Unfortunately, for every relative success story there are 50 failed states. Nation building is hard and requires guts, enterprise, selflessness and vision. Mugabe wasn’t even asked to nation build. He was handed a fully functioning, very rich and successful country and managed to level it in less than a generation. That takes mean spiritness, stupidity, and the most crass selfishness and myopic vision, which, unfortunately, seems to be the calibre of most African leaders. Take and destroy is what they do and in the meantime, the west continues to do what the west does best. Assuage our feelings of western guilt by feeding, clothing and vaccinating the Africans left behind by their very own “leaders”.
We can write much of Africa off if the Chinese economy falters, And also, we can take Australia with it.
Problem with africa is its full of africans
“Unfortunate event”
In who’s eyes ????
Funny that at Mandela’s memorial when the camera would go to different world leaders the crowd would cheer or boo depending on who it was on. Mugabe got a massive cheer and Bush Jnr got a massive boo. Ya no your screwed when Mugabe gets a bigger cheer than ya!
It was an ANC crowd at the funeral & Mugabe was a big supporter if the ANC during apartheid times so I’d be sure that’s why he was cheered rather than for his recent policies.
That says a lot more about the crowd than it does about Bush Jr.
Whatever you can accuse Bush Jr. of, laying waste to his country, starving his people, killing the productive farmers and having an ugly greedy, mean wife isnt among them. An ANC crowd can turn into a vicious mob at the turn of a hair. Being rational abd discerning is not their thing.
Hurricane Katrina anyone? ;)
Sadly, probably the latter.
Problem with Africa is the tribal government system, and the mentality of it’s people.
@coom
Same could be said for a lot of countries..including ours!
Christina who wrote that paper? Dept of the Taoiseach?
While it is true that Robert Mugabe has a few character flaws, it cannot be denied that he is an active leader who stands up for his people. Much better than the shower we have running this country, he is. You can bet Robert Mugabe would have burned the bondholders and sent the IMF home with a flea in their ear.
Pity he didn’t have a fatal “accident” here.
Proably after totruring them first…Thing is we can elect another incompetant shower to govern us.Mugabe is there forever like a big black blood sucking tick on Zimbabwae.But then thats what happens if you let Marxist gun waving loons loose on a perfectly functioning and producing ,albeit not without is fault state.Turn it into a dictatorship that makes the previous oppression by whomever look like paradise.
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