Haruna
Meddling from neighboring Magreb countries require the government and 
people of Mali to be a little more sophisticatedly when dealing with the 
desert nomads. Any attempt to use military force could end the same 
place western Sudan is. The fact is conflict in the that part of Sahel 
is climate/land resource base. Our ancestors adapted to the problems of 
resource scarcity by allowing some to develop nomadic lifestyle while 
others engage in sedentary living.  Enforcement of international borders 
has the unintended effect of restricting annual /seasonal migrations 
thus limiting coping mechanisms. This is the source of conflicts in this 
resource poor situation. The situation becomes even worst when the 
government on one side of the conflict (often with ethnic tendencies) 
joins in the condemnation of the other as the trouble makers or bandits. 
In my view what is called banditry is the expression of discontent and 
marginalization.  It must be understood that until the imposition of 
these modern countries (50yrs ago?), many tribes/nations were very 
independent. The creation of countries have not partitioned some of 
these nations, it also created out of them minorities who only 25yrs ago 
were majorities. At the same time previous marginalized people have 
become the powerful and power brokers.

 From a purely resource management point of view, a central pillar of 
mitigating the impacts of droughts in the region is the conversion of 
what I call "wetland islands" (oasis and inland floodplains) in a 
largely semi-desert landscape, into irrigated rice baskets. This results 
in an all year crop production system that severely limits the use of 
the ecosystem for grazing and biodiversity conservation. Given that 
different ethnic groups specialize on different agro-pastoral systems, 
the struggle for these resources can easily express themselves as ethnic 
conflicts.

Its getting complicated already. The solution, in my view is for the 
government to find creative means to engage all parties/ethnicities to 
this new order without coercion.



Malanding Jaiteh




Haruna Darbo wrote:
> I'm glad this one is in English. The North Mali problem is two-fold
>  
> 1. Internecine: age-old tribal conflicts between permutations of 
> Tuareg tribes and Peul and Songhai tribes at the Mali-Niger border.
>  
> 2. The affect of prolonged periods of drought which has decimated 
> pasture for all nomadic tribes who then blame government for not 
> bringing enough development to the north.
>  
> Various governments of Mali over the years have tried to solve these 
> seemingly intractable problems in various ways relying on very meagre 
> means. However, since ATT's arrival, and his committment to steer Mali 
> in comprehensive democracy and free enterprise, Mali has received 
> enormous goodwill.
>  
> A. Goodwill from nature and Allah/God because the severe droughts of 
> the 90's has not occured. Not that it wouldn't occur again but Mali's 
> renewed focus on the national environment and irrigation projects in 
> the north will temper the affects of cyclical droughts. It is 
> understood that you can have pasture degradation both in scarce 
> rainfall and in abundant (flooding) rainfall. Therefore events of 
> nature can only be optimally managed and Mali seeks that balance where 
> a drought or flood might have nil or diminshed affect on lives and 
> livelihood. Whether one likes democracy or not, national development 
> can best occur in relative peace or better in total friggin peace.
>  
> B. Goodwill from development partners like Norway, Sweden, 
> Denmark, USA, Canada, China, EU, RUssia, Saudia, Libya, Cuba, France, 
> Tunisia, Malaysia, Australia, UK, Japan, South Korea, South Africa, 
> Venezuela, Brazil, The AgHa Khan Foundation, UNICEF, UNESCO, Yemen, 
> The Emirates, UNDP, FAO, etcetera, etcetera. These development 
> partners, recognizing Mali's sincere efforts at DEMOCRATIC LIFE, and 
> the fact that Mali is LANDLOCKED, have increased their investment in 
> Mali's GOOD future. This is why Mali is able, even amid global 
> economic stringency, to develop the nation more comprehensively. No 
> development can take place amid national insecurity and 
> gratuitous banditry. Not even if you have limitless funds.
>  
> The internecine conflicts and gratuitous banditries have also had some 
> meddling from Libya, Algeria, and Mauritania on the Touareg side, and 
> Niger and Chad on the Peul and Songhai side.
>  
> I hope this explains some of the dynamics. You don't have to take my 
> word for it, you can travel there to see for yourself, or we can 
> review notes from disparate sources. I just happened to be familiar 
> with this menace from an early age and have been following it since. 
> That's all. I do know that whether in socialism, naturalism, 
> communism, democracy, kleptocracy, or any cracy one may divine, 
> development best occurs in serenity and considered calm. Mali 
> governments are not responsible for what nature deals Mali. They can 
> only effort to ameliorate the affect and train on equal treatment 
> under law. BTW, the peuls and Songhai are also inherently nomadic just 
> like the Tuaregs. I haven't even shared info on Nomadic Bambaras, 
> Mandingos, Wollofs, Jolas, Serers, Mendes, Ibos, Yorubas, etcetera. 
> The bottom-line is that when there is a drought in any area, ranching 
> nomads must travel further for pasture. That means, you impose on the 
> little pasture other ranching nomads have. You are not entitled to 
> that pasture. You can only use it with the permission of the owners, 
> who themselves need it for their herds.
>  
> BTW Dr. Jaiteh, I came across a pioneer research by the University of 
> Bamako and it involves Geospatial cartography and water-use for Mali. 
> Perhaps you can assist them or find it a valuable read. Perhaps your 
> university is already assisting the UofBM in this endeavour. The 
> article is in french and I was looking for an au-pair article in 
> English. I haven't been lucky yet but I'll keep looking.  
> Haruna.
>  
>
>
>           MALI-NIGER: Insecurity persists despite militia leader's arrest
>
>
> Photo: Phuong Tran/IRIN <http://www.irinnews.org/photo> 
> <http://www.irinnews.org/PhotoDetail.aspx?ImageId=200808298>
> The edge of the Sahara desert bordering Mali and Niger, 2007
>
> BAMAKO, 29 September 2008 (IRIN) - Analysts say despite the 
> government's efforts to secure the north through its clampdown of a 
> militia accused of masterminding recent Tuareg killings, lasting peace 
> is still elusive because of restive ex-fighters, extreme Sahelian 
> poverty, and drug trafficking.
>
> Mali officials have reported arresting dozens of suspects in the Ganda 
> Izo militia, or "children of the earth," including its leader Amadou 
> Diallo who had fled to neighbouring Niger after four ethnic Tuareg 
> civilians were abducted and killed during a Muslim holiday fair in 
> Gao, Mali on 1 September.
>
> *Fears persist
> *
> Rather than feeling appeased by the government crackdown, Tuareg human 
> rights lobbyist Raichatou Wallet Altanata says even good intentions 
> may provoke a violent backlash, "I fear the government's hunt and mass 
> arrests of militia members may have the opposite effect on their 
> [militia] movement."
>
> She fears the militia may strike back with revenge killings against 
> the Tuareg community in the north.
>
> Altanata says Ganda Izo, a militia made up primarily of ethnic Peuhls 
> and Songhais brings up bloody memories for her of the group's 
> paramilitary predecessor in the 1990's, Ganda Koy, which was accused 
> of having the government's backing in its mass executions of Tuareg 
> civilians in 1993 and 1994.
>
> Both the governments of Mali and neighbouring Niger have been accused 
> of violent crackdowns during Tuareg revolts that sent thousands of 
> Tuaregs fleeing into Libya, Algeria and beyond, starting in 1996.
>
> *
>
> Photo: Phuong Tran/IRIN <http://www.irinnews.org/photo> 
> <http://www.irinnews.org/PhotoDetail.aspx?ImageId=2008090210>
> Tuareg fighters in Niger and Mali have periodically taken up arms to 
> demand more control of the desert
>
> Bloody past, bright future?
> *
> Various Tuareg rebel factions have periodically taken up arms over the 
> past nearly two decades in both Niger and Mali against their 
> governments, demanding more services in the drought-prone north, and 
> autonomy for the northeast region's Tuareg nomadic communities.
>
> Peace accords starting in the early 1990's between governments and 
> Tuareg rebel groups led to years of relative calm until the resurgence 
> of violence in Mali in May 2006 
> <http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=59096>, and Niger in 
> February 2007.
>
> Niger's government has refused to negotiate with rebels this time 
> around. Mali's government and Tuareg rebels, meanwhile, suspended 
> Algeria-mediated peace talks 31 August 2008, though these are expected 
> to continue after the Muslim month of religious fasting ends in the 
> coming days.
>
> But anthropologist Naffet Keita with the University of Bamako, who has 
> published on Tuareg revolts, says conditions that permitted 
> state-sponsored ethnic-based violence in response to past Tuareg 
> rebellions have changed. "The people who brutally murdered four 
> Tuaregs on 1 September were mistaken to think they would be protected 
> by the state as they have been in the past. It is not the same era," 
> said Keita.
>
> But despite Keita's assessment of a more just Malian military, he and 
> other analysts say there are still stumbling blocks to lasting 
> regional security.
>
> *Haphazard integration
> *
> Previous efforts to integrate former fighters into Mali's national 
> army were flawed, says Faradji Ag Bouteya, an army officer in Mali's 
> Territorial Administration, "Rebels who joined the army never really 
> left behind their movements."
>
> He says after the 1996 peace accord, designed to end years of Tuareg 
> revolt in northern Mali, about 12,000 former Tuareg rebels were 
> integrated into the army, paramilitary and public posts, some of whom 
> then deserted, says Bouteya.
>
> "They were not used to military discipline, wanted things the easy 
> way, [but] they wanted to get the state's attention, so they took the 
> short-cut of taking up arms again."
>
> Anthropologist Keita says the military was insufficiently trained or 
> prepared to absorb the new waves of fighters, some of whom were given 
> positions of leadership, "These are officers who never had people over 
> them. This [can be] dangerous for everybody. If there is another wave 
> of integration, we risk falling into the same trap [of heightened 
> tension between Tuareg ex-rebels and the military]."
>
> *Delayed development
> *
> Droughts starting in the 1970's wiped out pastoralists' livestock, 
> shrunk cultivation land and pushed rural communities, including nomads 
> living on the edge of the Saharan desert, deeper into poverty.
>
>
> Photo: IRIN <http://www.irinnews.org/> 
> <http://www.irinnews.org/PhotoDetail.aspx?ImageId=20058153>
> Child in Gao hospital, eastern Mali
>
> Mali consistently ranks close to the bottom of an annual UN ranking of 
> living conditions around the world, measured by life expectancy, 
> education and income.
>
> But Mahomed Ag Mahmoud, the director of the state's Agency for the 
> Development of the North, says the government is trying, and has since 
> 2006 invested US$3.6 million in infrastructure, water sources and 
> microfinance in the north 
> <http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=59796>. "In addition, it 
> has been forecasted that over the next 10 years, the government will 
> invest an additional US$1.5 billion in the north."
>
> But Altanata, who works with the Association for the Promotion of 
> Peace, Development and Human Rights, says this figure is dubious, 
> "Development efforts undertaken and pledged by the state remain just 
> that, hypothetical pledges. If you visit the north, it does not look 
> like millions have been pumped in."
>
> *Drug trafficking
> *
> The UN Office on Drugs and Crime has recorded more drug seizures and 
> trafficking through the Sahara desert in recent years. Investigators 
> trace the drugs from various West African ports, through the desert, 
> and onward to lucrative European cocaine and heroin markets.
>
> Tuareg rebels have denied having powerful positions in the trafficking 
> chain, but have admitted to IRIN, under the cover of anonymity, of 
> being hired as lookouts or, occasionally, as drivers.
>
> One Tuareg rebel who has fought in both Mali and Niger rebellions told 
> IRIN, "People think we know more about the drug trade than we really 
> do. We would love to be more involved. Our youths have no jobs. At 
> least it would bring us some money. But the Arabs are protective of 
> their trafficking and won't let us in too close. At most, they might 
> hire us to pose as herders to look out for security forces- you know, 
> the old men with no animals standing in the middle of the desert."
>
> The head of Mali's Commission of Peace and Reconciliation, Mahamadou 
> Diagouraga, told IRIN even in the best of circumstances, drug 
> trafficking threatens the north's security, "Drug trafficking and the 
> spread of Algeria's Islamism into our country turns the north into a 
> fertile breeding ground. Even if we had total control of this space, I 
> don't think, even then, the peace that we so long for would come any 
> time soon."
>
> gd/pt/aj
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