Coup in Mali!

Holy crap! After 20 years of democracy, there has been a coup in Mali! After two months of fighting, soldiers returned from the North of Mali and overthrew the government in Bamako. They complained that the government had not supplied them with proper food or weapons to hold their own against the Tuareg separatists.

After the fall of Gadhafi, Malian Tuareg soldiers that he'd recruited went back home heavily armed. With their newfound military might, it seems they came back with a greater ability to impose the change they'd been angling for before they'd left. They started causing trouble in the North of Mali, and the government in Bamako responded by sending their own force out to counter them.

I used to joke that Mali would lose any war they got into, because, with their relaxed attitude toward work obligations, none of the soldiers would show up.

Yeah, well, it looks like that's more or less what happened. The soldiers weren't prepared for war, and neither was the government. With unrealistic views of what resources were necessary, they supplied soldiers with inferior weapons, and little to no living resources.

The coup happened one month before a democratic election, that would have forced the current president to step down. The soldiers claim that this isn't a coup, just a mutiny, and that they will allow the democratic election to take place and will step down their own influence in favour of the newly elected president.

It sounds to me that the soldiers simply panicked, and they came up with the idea that they couldn't defeat the Tuaregs, but they could defeat the Malian government. They didn't want to spend another month getting slaughtered before the next election.

The coup seems pretty bloodless. The presidential guards didn't even bother to try and guard anyone. There are some descriptions of Bamako civilians boarding themselves in or fleeing their homes. There are descriptions of soldiers patrolling the city, firing their guns into the air. Apparently the soldiers have done some looting in the presidential quarters.

I'm quite skeptical of the accuracy of international news, now that I've seen so much published information that was simply incorrect on the basis of what I saw, but this doesn't sound like something that would just be made up.

One Malian participant from the North of Mali has contacted us through Facebook to decry the soldiers that abandoned Northern Mali. He called them a "Failed generation."

I posted a status update on my concerns regarding the current conflict. I wanted to say so much, but I had to grill my brain just so that I could conjure a sentence that I could be sure said what I meant, and that also made sense.

I said "Pour mes amis au Mali. J'ai vu les nouveaux problèmes au Mali. J'ai vu les médias. Je prie pour la sécurité du Mali et mes amis." which tranlates to "For my friends in Mali. I have seen the new problems in Mali. I have seen the media. I pray for the safety of Mali and my friends."

I should have said "Conflict" instead of "Problems" thinking back on it, since I know the two words, and I wanted to express a concern for the safety of my Malian friends without taking a political standpoint, but I don't think it should be a problem.

My Northern Malian contact must feel sore, because now the Tuaregs have full reign over his land, but the people of Bamako may prioritize the safety of it's citizens, with the inclusion of their soldiers who were being slaughtered out there.

I know at least one person from Northern Mali, and I can think of at least three participants who were native to Bamako. Plus, I had a few friends who I met in Bamako, too. Hell, most of the Canadians in the group got to meet the (former) president of Mali!

Bamako looks stable enough. I don't know if the soldiers will follow up on their claim to hand back control of Mali, and this might cause future problems for the African government, but for the time being, it looks like the worst is over.

Northern Mali looks bad, though. There is nobody out there to protect civilians. Sounds like most of the fleeing, boarding up and bloodshed is happening out there. And the thought that the soldiers preferred to fight their own government to the Tuaregs makes me feel uneasy concerning the future of Mali.

We were forbidden to enter North Mali during our program. We were forbidden to leave the village area, but we were ESPECIALLY forbidden to enter North Mali. The reason being that they are xenophobic and more inclined to violence out there. My North Mali contact confirmed this statement. At the time, it was hard to imagine any Malian acting in a seriously violent manner.

It's funny, because Timbouctou is in North Mali. It's Mali's most touristic place, and more people know Timbouctou than know Mali. During the program, some tourists were kidnapped in Timbouctou, and apparently, they were eventually killed. Mali's got all it's tourists funneling into it's most dangerous, most xenophobic place.

That news had made us nervous, because Timbouctou is far more heavily guarded than our village, and we were pretty visible. If somebody had taken it onto themselves to kidnap us... they probably could have.

I think my friends in the village will be okay. I used to say that, if World War broke out, there'd be no safer place than Karadie. Not much reason to move so far inland in Africa, and not so much reason to move into that region of Mali. The Malians didn't even know that World War 2 had happened. They didn't know who Hitler was. Not much of a World War, if it missed that chunk of the world, if you ask me.

Anyway, somebody countered that we'd probably be raided by roaming soldiers as an afterthought eventually. I countered with this military strategy: "Take the sign down that says 'Karadie' next to the road."

Only thing that concerns me is that they might not know what's going on, since they rely mainly on word of mouth for their information, and therefor, they might not act accordingly to any new danger. I still think they'll be fine.

It's funny, all this controversy over how to spread information to the next CWY group going to Mali. I'm willing to bet they won't send another group out there.

In other news, the CWY office sent me an offer for a job interview, to be a paid intern at their office in Toronto. I didn't apply for this position, they're apparently contacting alumni. I haven't asked if anybody else in the group has gotten this offer. Apparently I'd be working under the guy who put me in the Mali rotation, who I met again in the CWY offices in Montreal, and who hosted the mass, voiced online seminar and program participation interview.

I've been asked to speak over telephone or Skype to give my insight on how to improve the CWY weblog format. I've also been contacted by the ministry of Canadian overseas volunteering to give them feedback on the effectivity of Canada World Youth.

I feel important.