Imperialism and the crisis in Mali

independent of the government based in Bamako in the south of the country.
The crisis in Mali reached a critical level when junior military officers headed by Amadou Sanogo staged a mutiny and seized political power on March 21-22. Since this take over by the National Committee for the Restoration of Democracy and the State (CNRDR), the usurpation of authority in Bamako from former president Amadou Toumani Toure has been met with regional and international condemnation.
Although the CNRDR said that the junior officers took action because of the failure of the central government to effectively halt the encroachment of the MNLA and the Ansar Dine Islamists in the north, after the putsch additional cities fell to the Azawad secessionists making a declaration of liberation from the rest of the country inevitable.
Capt Sanogo has had close ties with the United States military through the Pentagon’s “anti-terrorism” training programs and joint military exercises with the Malian army. The US has viewed the Mali government as an important partner in its renewed effort to increase its influence over large sections of the African continent under the guise of working with these states to assist in providing security and stability.
On April 5, Capt Sanogo granted interviews to the French dailies Le Monde and Liberation indicating that his CNRDR regime would need assistance in regaining control over the areas seized by the MNLA and Ansar Dine. Both of these organisations are based among the Tuareg people of the north of Mali who have historically been marginalised from the political dispensation of the post-independence period.
According to Capt Sanogo, “If the great powers are bale to cross oceans to battle fundamentalist structures in Afghanistan, what’s stopping them coming to us? Our committee wants the best for the country.”
Sanogo went on to say that “The enemy is known and it is not in Bamako. If a force was to intervene it would have to do so in the north.”
In raising the spectre of an Islamist take over in the north, the coup leader is attempting to provide the rationale for western military intervention. In efforts aimed at appeasing both the regional Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) and the former French colonial powers along with the White House, Sanogo has voluntarily agreed to hand over power to a civilian interim government.
This sudden willingness to step down is related to the sanctions imposed on the country through Ecowas which had closed the borders of the landlocked country and froze Malian assets through the regional central bank. Both France and the US have threatened to suspend aid to the CNRDR consequently choking off the regime from much needed monetary, technical and military support, at least for the time-being.
Nonetheless, with the interests of the U.S. and France being very much tied to the political developments on the African continent, the references by Sanogo to the threat of Islamic rule in West Africa resonates in ruling circles in the imperialist states.
Compounding this tendency toward greater Pentagon and NATO intervention in Africa, there are already military relationships between several North and West African states with the governments of Western Europe and North America.
Sanogo emphasised that “Today, it’s no longer a simple rebellion. It is Islamist groups basing themselves in the north of the country. If Mali is left alone to face this problem, Africa and the world will face the consequences.”
Most observers of African affairs agree that the US-NATO war against Libya that began in March 2011 resulted in massive dislocation and political instability in various neighbouring states. Many Tuareg fighters had been aligned with the Libyan Jamahiriya under the former leader Muammar Gaddafi.
These veterans of the Libyan loyalist resistance re-entered northern Mali in late 2011 and bolstered the longtime rebellion in the north of the country. By early 2012 it was obvious that the war in northern Mali had gone beyond anything seen since the independence of the former French colony in 1960.
The Tuareg people are spread out within several West and North African states including Niger, Burkina Faso, northern Nigeria and Algeria. In Mauritania on April 8, a meeting of regional governments revealed the differences of opinion that leaders have in regard to handling the recently proclaimed independence by the MNLA in northern Mali.
Niger stressed that the MNLA rebellion must be put down militarily before any negotiations could take place in relations to the grievances of the Tuareg people. Algeria on the other hand cautioned against outside interference in the internal affairs of Mali.
Mohamed Bazoum, the Foreign Minister of Niger, said in Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania during the regional meeting that “We need to redress the balance of forces on the ground before we can talk about negotiations. We need to organise a confrontation with the terrorist groups. Mali’s north must be cleared of terrorism and it seems to me we have the ideal opportunity.”
Algeria, the region’s largest political and economic power, articulated through its Delegate Minister for African Affairs, Abdelkader Messahel, that “The solution can only be a political one. It cannot be the result of a military effort which could instead worsen an already complex and precarious situation.”
This situation is further complicated with the kidnapping of seven Algerian diplomats in Mali which was purportedly carried out by the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO). The group said it “officially claims responsibility for the kidnapping of the Algerian consul and six of his team in Gao,” located in the northeast of Mali.