The Mali Crisis and Responses by Regional Actors

Abstract

Regional actors and dynamics played important roles both in underpinning the most recent crisis in Mali beginning in 2012, and in subsequent efforts to resolve that crisis and return the country to peace and stability. This paper examines the Mali crisis through a regional lens – first in terms of understanding two of the most proximate drivers of the crisis: the rebellion of the Tuaregs in combination with the emergence of Islamic extremism in the north of the country. A minority group in the north of Mali, the Tuareg have few livelihood opportunities aside from regional trade and the trafficking of contraband. The Tuareg’s mounting dissatisfaction with governance from Bamako was given added force by the return of well-armed and radicalised Tuareg from Libya following the fall of the Gadaffi regime in August 2011. The combined effects of disaffected and radicalised Tuareg rebel groups on the one hand, and Islamic militant groups, notably those emerging from the earlier Algerian conflict, set off the recent crisis in Mali. The paper then examines how the key African multilateral actors – ECOWAS at sub-regional level, the AU at the continental level – responded to the ongoing crisis. The paper suggests that although several significant factors and dynamics that have influenced or even driven the Mali crisis were regional in scope, regional efforts to establish peace and stability in Mali have been too narrowly defined or flawed in attempted implementation. It suggests that resolving the problems in Mali must take into account the complex cross-border dynamics and drivers of conflict occurring within the broader regional, i.e. Sahelo-Saharien, context.