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Februray 2, 2013

[Diplomacy] Mali Crisis, Taureg rebels, French Troops,Algeria Hostages: Background, implications explained Mrunal

[Diplomacy] Mali Crisis, Taureg rebels, French Troops, AlgeriaHostages: Background, implications explained

What is Mali?

Landlocked country in West Africa

Capital: Bamako.

Got independence f rom France in 1960

Players in this crisis?

Fact ion Teams What do they want?

Rebels Islamist1. Ansar Dine

They want to impose Islamic law across Mali

1. AQIMSame. They earn ca$h by kidnappingwesterners and drug-traff ic. Theyre therichest among all rebels.

SecularTuaregs 1. MNLA

Earlier they wanted to create a separatenation for Tureg people, but now t hey justwant autonomy.

Government 1. Mali

Government

doesnt have enough f irepower to matchrebels.

1. FrenchGovernment

Sent troops because it Malis of f icial army isill-equipped to f ight the rebels.

Who are the Tuareg?
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Tuareg areas

Sahel regions of Libya, Algeria, Niger,Burkina Faso and Mali.

In medieval t imes, they used to run Camelcaravans across Sahara- trading gold,spices, salts and dates.

Sometimes called the Blue Peoplebecause they most ly wear dark blue /indigo colored tradit ional garments.

What is their problem?

We reside in Northen Mali.

While capital city = Bambako = located inSouth.

Government sits there and does nothing for our development.

Were light skinned. And all good posit ions in Government and bureaucracy manned byblack people.

We are not gett ing any jobs, educat ion etc.

Villages gett ing displaced due to mining act ivities, and the subsequent land-degradation=bad for our farms, catt le.

So Tuareg people had been rebelling against the Sout h since a long t ime.

Gaddafi Angle: 2011

Colonel Gaddaf i (of Libya) had been hiring Tuareg t ribesmen in his army.

2011=Uprising in Libya, Colonel Gaddaf i gets killed.

So these Tuareg tribesmen (from Libyan army) formed their own new rebel group calledMNLA.

They took possession of powerful weapons, surface-to-air missiles etc. f rom Gaddafisfallen army and decided to come back home.

They came back home (Northern Mali) and started f ighting against the Mali Government.

(+Other Islamic militants were also active in the region so they got help.)

Azawad: Jan-April 2012

From January 2012 onwards, there is heavy f ighting between rebels and Mali army, in theNorthern areas of Mali.

But the army did not have powerful weapons. so They had to f lee.

Thus MNLA rebels took control of Northern Areas of Mali and declared it a f ree countrycalled Azawad. (in April 2012)

However, this Azawad count ry has not been recognized by UN or any powerful count ry(US/China etc.)

Mali President overthrown: March 2012


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So far you know that

Tuareg people = unhappy.

Some of them served in Libyan army but came back home aft er death of Gaddafi.(+brought heavy weapons.)

These rebels fought against Mali army and threw them out of Northern Mali.

So, now Mali army= unhappy.

Army blamed President Toure fo r this fiasco.

Why? Because USA was giving truckload of ca$h to President o f Mali to f ight of f theIslamist terror groups.

But this President was just using that money for his personal aiyyaashi (=buying sportscars, Rolex watches, diamond studded i-phone1,2,3,4,5, consuming desi liquor and youget the picture.)

Thats why Mali army did not have good weapons, tanks, gadgets to f ight with the rebels..

One army of f icer named Captain Sanogo gathered the soldiers and staged a coupagainst this President and threw him out . (Although later this Captain handed over powerto next President Traor.)

So right now Mali army is divided into factions one of them supports the old oustedPresident Toure and wants to bring him back in power.

Entry of French Troops: Jan 2013

While all this mess was going on, the extremists groups f rom Northern Mali, startedcapturing the areas in Central Mali region. (such as Timbuktu)

New President panicked and called up French President:

New President of Mali please help us. Our army is ill-equipped, divided into factions.Weve neither the weapons nor the morale to f ight these rebels.So come help us.

French PresidentFrancois Hollande

I cannot allow a terrorist state to emerge in Mali.Ungoverned spaces in Mali could provide a launch-pad for Jihadistattacks in Europe and elsewhere.But USA, UN or African Union are doing nothing!So Ill send my own French army to f ight against these terrorgroups.

AQIM (Extremistgroup)

@French President, buddy youre making a grave mistake.Now we will retaliate by striking back at the heart of France (Paris).You just wait and watch.

Althou h some


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French Of f ensive in Mali

experts believeFrance is playing bigbrot her only to getits hands on Goldand Oilreserves ofMali. (similar to USAin Iraq)

Back to Northern Mali

You know that MNLA= Tuareg rebels who previously served in Gadhafis army. They hadreturned back to Northern Mali.

But their influence in Northern Mali started declining after they ran out of money (spent inf ighting against Mali Army, paying salary to mercenaries and fo r running propaganda.)

Hence, many of MNLA fighters left the gang and joined other Islamist groups. (like AnsarDine, AQIM etc)

Why? Because the Islamists are far richer, earning truckload of cash by kidnappingWesterners fo r ransom and t raff icking cocaine, marijuana and cigarettes.

So right now, AQIM (Islamist group) has cont rol of Northern Areas, while MNLAs grip hasdeclined.

Given this changed power equation, now the MNLA says, We support the Frenchintervention, all we want is autonomy- we dont want a separate nation for Tuareg people.We are secular, we are not associated with AQIM or other hardcore Islamist groups.

What is AQIM?

Al-Qaida in the Islamic Mahgreb (AQIM)

something like a franchise of Al-Qaida + variety of hardcore groups operating in thisregion.

It of fers a typical mixof jihadist activity + criminality (drugs, weapons trades, kidnapping,ransom etc.)


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Implications of Mali Crisis?

#1: Afghanistan of Africa

If Bamako (Of f icial capital of Mali) falls in the hands of Rebels then it would be like a

repeat of the Talibans rise in Afghanistan in 1996= If the extremists take the capital, itsgame over.

The whole region will become safe-haven for terrorists, drug traff ickers, hostage takers(like recall Kandahar episode).

This will further destabilize neighboring count ries of Niger and Mauritania.

Therefore, international community must prevent Mali f rom turning into the Afghanistanof Africa.

#2: Iran wants to play big brother

Iran holds the chair of NAM (Non-Aligned movement).

Iran has of fered to play role of negot iator between t he Mali Government vs Rebel crisis.

Iran wants to use this opportunity to expose double standards of USA on Syria vs. Maliand to increase influence in this region and generate good will (by showing that it doesntsupport extremist element.).

Irans off icial stat ement regarding Mali crisis We are against extremism. But we are alsoagainst the (western) interference in the domestic affairs of countries and military

intervention.

#3: African Union (AU)

Af rican union= Secretariat in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.


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In late January 2013, African Union held a summit to get a solution f or Mali crisis.

French wants AU to quickly deploy soldiers. but so f ar only about 1,000 t roops havearrived, and only few of them have taken up front line positions, where actual f ight ing isgoing on (between Rebels and French).

Chad has promised to send 2,000 soldiers and Burundi has confirmed its readiness to joinwithout giving exact number of soldiers.

So this Mali crisis will be an acid test of Af rican Unions ability to tackle regional crisis.

#4: USA

U.S. says, If African Union (AU) sends forces in Mali, well support them with logistics. Butwe cannot fully engage in Mali until a new government is elected and the political crisis issolved.

Experts believe President Obama wants to spend his second (and last) term fixing thedomestic issues (economic crisis) so Democratic party can win next Presidential election.

Therefore, he is not much interested in pursuing aggressive foreign policy agendaanymore. Besides America has already burned enough cash on Iraq and Afghanistan.

Algeria Hostage Crisis

In early January, 2013, France sent its troops to Mali.

Just a few days after that , some Gunmen with al-Qaeda links attacked a gas plant inAlgeria.

They took the workers as hostages (including foreign nationals.)

Gunmen inAlgerianplant

Weve attacked this plant because of following reasons

1. We want French troops to leave Mali ASAP.

2. Algerian Government has allowed France to use its airspace whilebombarding our gangmembers in Mali.

3. Algerian Government has jailed our esteemed terrorist leaders. Theymust be freed.

Otherwise well shoot down the hostages and blow up this gas plant.

AlgerianGovernment

This is pure ****** man, youve been planning for this at tack since last twomonths, long before French decided to enter in Mali!Youre just using French angle to get attention of international media.Otherwise Your main objective is to get ransom f rom foreign Governmentsand to free your terrorist leaders from our jails.But guess what? Well not agree with your demands.

Climax of Algerian Hostage Crisis

The stand of f between terrorists and Algerian forces cont inued for 4 days.

Algerian Government did not allow foreign special forces (US/UK) to ent er or help in thishostage crisis.


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Finally Algerian Governments decided to at tack those terrorists instead of cont inuingnegotiation with them.

This led to death of 29 militants and 38 civilians, including six Brit ish nationals. (=badpublicity and international criticism.)

Later, Algerian Government gave statement, Sorry we made some mistakes in handlingthis hostage crisis. But when facing terrorists, its not just words that solve the problem.

Action has to be taken! By the way, weve found some evidences that Canadian nationalswere involved in this act of terrorism.

Mock Questions

Q1 Correct Statement

1. Mauritania is a landlocked country

2. Mali shares borders Libya and Morocco.

3. Strait of Gibraltar separates Italy and Morocco.

1. Only 1 and 2

2. Only 2 and 3

3. Only 1 and 3

4. None

Q2. Incorrect Match

Place Located in

1. TimbuktuMali

1. Addis AbabaRwanda

1. Bamako Mali

1. JubaSouth Sudan

Q3. Incorrect Match

1. TuaregNorth and West Af rica

East Africa


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