In our “where the hell is (insert country here) and why should I care (because there is more to it than the news is telling you) series of articles we are featuring Mali. This will be a large story so don’t say we didn’t tell you so before the rhetoric starts. Below is a short SITREP of the situation there. Did I mention this is where Timbuktu is?
So by now you’ve heard about a country called Mali and that the French have something to do with it and maybe that there are “evil Islamist militants” there (but the evil Islamist militants that run the so called Western friendly nations, ie Saudi Arabia, Oman, etc are o.k.) and they are not “our friends”. Maybe if your a little more astute you’ll have heard some ratcheting information that ECOWAS (and African peacekeeping coalition) will be leading the charge to restore democratic Mali to its former peace loving glory. Yeah something like that. Problem is , it’s bullshit. Like this BBC article calling for France to send troops, lmao. They’re already there!
Mali is another former French colony in a shitty part of Africa:
(Mali at left). Its a pretty good sized land mass about twice the size of it’s former colonial master France. Also the home of the fabled Timbuktu!
Mali was part of it’s own empire for about 400 years then around the 1700’s started to break up into various warring kingdoms. Then in or around 1892 France moved in and took over. Fast forward to June 1960 France granted independence. And Mali then promptly became a one party ruled despotic dictatorship with some intrigues between all sides of the cold war but cozier with the East Bloc who didn’t come with strings attached for boatloads of AK-47’s and RPG’s. In the 1990’s the government pretty well had to cave in to the notion of “democracy” as the money and supplies from the East Block dried up as Communism collapsed abroad. Democracy though is never clean and easy. In 2002 the first real transfer of power from one democratically elected government to another actually took place. The former power holders had their 2 terms and the newly elected ones took the reigns. But this new one refused to let democracy continue and again become a tin pot dictatorship until another over throw of President Amadou Toumani Toure in March of 2012. Since then it’s been everyone for themselves to climb to the top.
So were told Mali is becoming a terrorist state by France but yet it’s the same “terrorrists” that they armed and supported in Libya?!
So were told that in January the shit hits the fan (at least according to mainstream news). So what the fuck happened? Well like alot of things that happen in Africa that many Westerners do not understand is tribal politics. We like to see neat lines on a map and think in terms like Republican or Democrat, problem is that in Africa in a great many areas it’s still tribal based. And it’s already been going on for awhile it’s just that things are so far gone now that it’s almost a year later and Western interests are hitting the panic button. Mali has great strategic resources and West friendly corporate interests are at stake!
disclaimer – it’s not my intention to make this an anti-Western rant. I just really don’t like it when folks piss on people’s backs and tell them it’s raining. This will be the same old game of “realpolitik” and the folks back home will be fed a line of black and white good vs evil, were defending democracy bullshit. In reality it’s blow-back from the whole Libya thing and protecting corporate interests. Also playing the evil Islamic militant card. So called allies of the West such as Saudi Arabia promote and protect extremist Wahhabists but we get to pick and choose which Islamist’s are “evil” depending on how much they can offer. end rant
So we will try to give a bit of a who’s who, what’s at stake. It wont be pretty or politically correct so anyone looking for some phoney baloney stuff can just shove off now. Still here? O.k. good, lets try to break this shit down into crayon.
The Players-
The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad or the Azawad National Liberation Movement
These are the guys who you will be told are the “bad guys”or “evil Islamist fanatics”. These are the people who will be getting the shit bombed out of them by the French and after (maybe) mopped up by ECOWAS and an unwilling Mali military. Essentially they are Tuerag tribesman leading another rebellion (they have a history of doing that) but this time they have allot of experience from fighting in Libya as mercenaries. Heck VW even named a luxury SUV after them, lol. These guys are tough folks known as fierce warriors with Allah in their hearts. As usual reality is much more complex than the simplified “news”.
Think similar situation to the Kurds in the Middle East, but in West Africa. Also a glut of weapons being brought into Mali from Libya ain’t helping things either. It is unfortunate (or fortunate depending on how politically astute they really are) for them that they are sitting on a huge oil reserve in the Sahel region. There is a well written report for the Geopolitical Monitor that outlines more information and can be found here.
If anyone has difficulty in getting the report just write in a request and I can send it to you in PDF format (evilvonscarry@gmail.com)
The French-
The French have a paternal interest in their former colony. A like many former colonial masters were never 100 percent “former masters”. Nothing like a war that nobody has to fight in their own streets help distract a troubled public from their own problems. War is like pornography for the masses. It’s also made French President Hollande allot more popular!
The Rebellion has been so successful it actually threatens to overwhelm the country (Mali) so the French deployed troops on the ground since early 2012. But this conflict is a good show case for the French arms industry to show of it’s products in a real time field situation. Also access to Mali’s resources and hydrocarbons is in danger, gotta sort that out! Mali is also a large producer of gold and uranium. Also Mali has traditionally been a big area of illicit drug and human trafficking, maybe when that black market enterprise became threatened the French needed to take action. As we have seen in recent reports and by whistle-blowers that the world’s financial system is tied in to the international sale of illicit drugs.
ECOWAS –The Economic Community Of West African States
These are the guys that everyone is pinning their “public” hopes. A feel good, hey look it’s African’s helping Africans. Long and short it’s a group of various west African countries in a kind of economic/political grouping. Think wannabe NATO for Africa. Another joint Western and UN feel good project. The training and condition of most of the troops is from moderate to poor as well as morale and capability. These countries are essentially the Western world’s only real solid grip on Africa especially in view of China’s continuing influence on the continent. Thus will do what it takes to maintain this influence as a counter balance to China increasing influence in Africa. Gotta crack a few eggs to make an omelet…….
Malian military – not a lot of hopes being pinned on the Malian miltary. About 7000 strong mostly on par with a para military police force, which even then is being really generous.(Photograph at left: Thibault Camus/AP). Almost a large red flag for any military, especially in Africa, is the uniformity of its equipment and supplies. When I see a hodgepodge of equipment and uniforms on the squad level I really question the quality of the troops and training.
Without some serious motivation, equipment and professional training these guys will be about as effective as ARVN conscripts in South Vietnam. Again think about tribal loyalties trumping any ideas about a larger “national” identity.
The United States– gains to benefit from militarization of the region and it’s resources. It has also had a training cadre there for some time but has not produced the desired results. Again Mali is a puzzle piece in ECOWAS and maintaining ECOWAS is just part of the larger long range picture for African influence and control. Let France take the public eye and the U.S. can operate behind the scenes.
Some might even say it’s because of Al-Queda and terrorism, but doubtful. Or the old domino theory of communism, just these days it’s the “terrorists” instead of the “red menace”. Some people of influence in the State Department or other decision making areas may see Mali as the “stumbling block” in Africa.
Corporate Interests- various….
With increasing hording of gold by world powers and banks it should be no surprise as gold being a major player in African politics, just ask the South African miners who were gunned down for striking not so long ago. Potentially this conflict in Mali is but part of the larger gold scare in the upcoming U.S. dollar collapse.In researching this article I was somewhat surprised by the amount of foreign companies and their involvement in Mali. Mostly I think the surprise is why Mali has not been in the news (in business journals or even the business end of nightly news casts on TV) simply due to the amount of money tied into that country!
A Canadian company with the unlikely name of IAMGOLD is one of the major, wait you guessed it, gold companies in Mali(mostly in the north). Other large gold players: AngloGold Ashanti and Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) mostly in the south (ie government held area).
Oil and gas wise it’s been pretty hard to track down large players, it would seem that it is potential oil and gas (in the form of untapped reserves) that is key in Mali, as well Mali would be a convenient pass-through for Algerian resources.
Sphere Petroleum seems to be a player being the parent or senior partner of Mali Petroleum SA.
A jobs site actually provided some insights to different companies operating in Mali.
French interests seem largely centered around uranium ( a strategic resource ) as well the mining at this point seems more important than potential gas and oil reserves.
OK so why should I care? –
This conflict has the potential to drag the entire region into open warfare crossing international boundaries. A bit alarmist? Maybe. But escalation of conflicts in Africa have traditionally created large scale refugee crisis (Somalia, Sudan,Ethiopia, etc). It also has the potential to further bankrupt France and other participants in another no win conflict.
As well due to varying western corporate concerns in this area also has the potential to drag in military resources from countries that these corporations call home. As we all know the tail wags the dog in real world politics. This is illustrative of what the real deal in Africa is.
Despite some of Al-Jazeera’s reporters being discredited in their neutrality in Syria, they are still one of the better sources of information for the middle east and Africa regions.
If you think we’ve missed anything or just want to drop a line. Feel free. We try to respond when we can. For those who have written in we thank you. Cheers- EvS
UPDATE FEB 13/2013
Things seemed to have been moving pretty quick since this post. Main Stream Media likes to make the reports like it’s the race to Tobruk in an illusion that things are moving quickly. Problem is that it isn’t. GlobalResearch.ca went into 2 really good articles on Mali that can be found here and another here.
So politicians such as David Cameron (U.K.) all already publicly talking about long range military commitments in the terms of months at least, possibly years in reference to Mali. Kind of like we were saying before about the “quagmire” potential in Mali. So now that the dust has settled from the media scrum when everyone finally realized there was a story in Mali, two things became pretty clear pretty quick. ( and yeah we told you so).
1/ its going to take a long time
2/ its important to keep China out of Africa
-EvS