Hamadou Tidiane Sy
30 March 2008
Nairobi — Fresh attacks by an armed Tuareg group have once again disrupted peace in the northern Mali.
The area has experienced sporadic uprisings over the past two decades, and cast a cloud over the country's image as a democratic model.
Maintaining a near-perfect image as a successful democracy is extremely important to the government, so the military counter-offensive against the insurgents was accompanied by a diplomatic initiative in the capital, Bamako.
While attention in most parts of the world was focused on Easter celebrations, the Malian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Moctar Ouane, was busy gathering foreign diplomats based in Bamako to convince them that the situation in the north of this vast West African nation was not the government's fault, but the result of the actions of one man, Ibrahim Ag Bahanga and his "gang".
The minister also accused fighters from unnamed "neighbouring countries" of having backed the attack. However, those who are familiar with the region had no doubt that he meant Tuaregs in Niger, another West African country facing a similar uprising by local Tuaregs, a community of light-skinned nomads scattered in the desert regions of Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Algeria and Libya.
Indeed, the story of Tuareg insurgency in Mali and Niger is very similar. The problem, which began in the early 1990s in both countries, was officially settled through peace agreements a few years later but is still lingering, with different groups appearing now and then to fight on behalf of this "white" minority claiming to be disadvantaged and left behind by "black" majority governments.
Small factions
Bahanga, the man accused by the Malian minister, has since 2007 been leading one of these small factions that emerge after every peace agreement, claiming that the government is not adhering to the terms of the agreement signed.
Before he became the head of an insurgent group, Bahanga was a member of the Bamako-based Haut Conseil des Collectivités du Mali, a sort of legislative assembly of provincial representatives. He was an elected member for Kidal in the north-east, close to the border with Algeria, and where all Mali's Tuareg insurgencies begin.
Since August last year, when he rejoined the rebellion, Bahanga has emerged as the new leader of the insurgency and is heading a group operating near the border with Algeria. And he has introduced new tactics to the battle, including abducting government soldiers and using landmines, like he did on March 19 and 20, and also in August 2007. Bahanga claims he acting on behalf of the Tuareg community, which constitutes nearly six per cent of the Malian population, or about 400,000 people.
The first Tuareg uprising in Mali took place in June 1990. It lasted a few years and ended with a peace deal between the insurgents and the government. At the time, the country had just embraced multi-party democracy after decades of one-party rule.
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