Northern Mali descending into total chaos

Mobhare Matinyi, Washington DC. The Citizen, Thursday, 05 July 2012 21:17This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
The northern part of Mali is descending into total chaos as the Islamist hardcore elements going by the name Ansar Dine continue to destroy historic monuments, placing landmines around northern cities, and forcing the Muslim population to surrender themselves at gun point to the will of Allah by observing Shariah.

The people of Mali are terrified and their government cannot do much to control the situation in an area the size of Zimbabwe, Uganda and Rwanda put together; that is approximately 652,000 square kilometres of about two-third of Mali against 652,958 of the three countries.

Ansar Dine who overran the area from the Tuareg rebels known as the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), are determined to establish the Islamic Republic of Azawad, whether the Malian Muslims of the north agree or not, and they have clearly stated that they are not interested in democracy because Allah wants his “slaves” to abide by his law and nothing more.

The problems in Mali started soon after the fall of the Libyan despot, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, about a year ago, when Arab revolutionary fighters decided to capture and if necessary kill anybody who looked black. The Tuareg who are basically nomads roaming around several countries in the Sahara desert including Mali, Niger, Libya and Algeria, and even Chad, withdrew from the Libyan armed forces where they had been kept by Gaddafi and returned home with an impressive haul of arms.

They wasted no time because now they had what it takes to win the battle, that is, spirit, fighters and weapons. By the beginning of this year they had already threatened the so-called emerging democracy in Africa, but for some reasons, the government in Bamako in the far south didn’t realize the magnitude of the threat.

One theory claims that President Amadou Toumani Touré, who was due to retire after the April 29 presidential polls, didn’t want any headache because he was leaving anyway. He is not the first in Africa to behave in this manner; he was content with the credit he had obtained from the international community. His military skills as a general didn’t help much to predict the danger ahead.

So, quickly, the military officers in Bamako took advantage of the vacuum and acted in an old fashioned way; they overthrew the government on the pretext that they were trying to rescue the situation. Captain Amadou Sanogo led the junta, but within three weeks he was forced to retire following unbearable pressure from the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas). According to the signed deal, he is now living comfortably as a former head of state.

But on May 21 something strange happened in Bamako’s presidential residence when an angry mob attacked the interim president, Dioncounda Traore, beating him like a thug in a lawless country; he however survived. He is expected to hang on power until May 2013 when the elections will be held.

Meanwhile, the ousted leader, Touré, is in Cote d’Ivoire after hiding himself for quite some time to avoid being arrested or killed by anyone. Now, with all that confusion, Ansar Dine in the north have decided to clean up all historic sites protected by the United Nations United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) including the famous ancient cities of Gao and Timbuktu which were the centers of trade and perhaps the first learning centers in Sub-Saharan Africa about 800 years ago.

There is a lot of African Islamic history in the captured areas of northern Mali, but now it is being destroyed completely. The only challenge that Ansar Dine is facing right now comes from the Tuareg MNLA fighters who are not happy with what is happening to their new country, Azawad, which they fought for quickly, only to lose to the Al Qaeda-connected fighters.

The interim government in Bamako is helpless and the only help that Mali is waiting for depends on whether the United Nations Security Council allows Ecowas troops to intervene militarily.

The AU in Addis Ababa is pushing for the same step, but the Ansar Dine fighters are not sleeping; they are digging. A big battle is coming in the landlocked West African nation, and the parliament in Bamako has already asked for help to which France has echoed support.

In Bamako people are chanting: “We want weapons to liberate the north.” The Malian citizens in the north, mostly from the moderate Tuareg, Fulani and Songhai ethnicities are insisting that: “If the army does want to go to war, then give us the means to liberate our territory.”

Mali, apparently the third-largest producer of gold in Africa after dislodging Tanzania, is in serious chaos. This is another time for African countries to prove to the world that we can handle our own security problems.