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Around Africa

Mali’s coup leader in meeting with ECOWAS mediators led by Goodluck Jonathan

Mali coup could have ramifications far

beyond its borders

he coup in Mali, against President groups to bolster his tribal insurgency, election, paving the way for Keita’s party
TIbrahim Boubacar Keita could have among them was al-Qaeda in the Islamic to occupy a majority of the vacant seats
ramifications far beyond its borders, Maghreb (AQIM), the regional affiliate in parliament. Unhappiness, particularly
threatening to further destabilize of what was then the global jihadist among young people, has been fueled
the region and jeopardize counter- movement’s preeminent network by poverty, lack of employment and
insurgency efforts led by France and under Ayman al-Zawahiri,a regional frustration over corruption.
the United States. The coup -- the latest conflagration was born.
upheaval in a cycle of turmoil lasting The merger was as much an opportunistic Mali has a young population -- around
almost a decade -- follows months of symbiosis as it was an ideological one, half of the country’s 19 million people
mass anti-government protests and a providing Ghali’s forces with greater are under the age of 18, according to
worsening insurgency from Islamist credibility and operational support in the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
militants north of the capital, Bamako. exchange for their own support for al- And 42.7% of Malians live in extreme
The ongoing conflict across the Sahel has Qaeda’s regional proliferation. poverty, according to the World Bank.
its roots in a Tuareg separatist rebellion Mali shares borders with Burkina Faso
that erupted in northern Mali against and Niger, and all three countries have Just as in 2012, The Keita’s government
President Amadou Toumani Touré struggled with the growing presence of has faced criticism over its inability
in 2012, and eventually spilled into Islamist groups. to quell the ongoing unrest by violent
neighboring Niger and Burkina Faso. Given the instability in the Sahel region, extremists in the country’s north and
The then, President Touré was later, observers fear that if Mali falls further more remote areas, far from Bamako,
same year, toppled by by soldiers into chaos, the dominoes will fall hard despite sustained counter-insurgency
unhappy with the way his government and fast, potentially unleashing unrest as efforts by Western and regional powers.
had been handling a Tuareg insurgency far afield as coastal West Africa Rebel soldiers seized Keïta, Malian
in the north. Public discontent began growing in May Prime Minister Boubou Cissé and other
When Tuareg warlord Iyad Ag Ghali after the country’s top constitutional senior leaders after a mutiny on 18
merged his forces with several jihadist court overturned the results of a disputed August, dealing another deep blow to a

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