Mali and current developments – Part III

Toward a more democratic future

A new constitution and a multiparty government raised hopes of a more democratic future. President Konaré’s efforts to rebuild Mali were hampered, however, by a weak economy, drought, desertification, inefficient parastatals (agencies serving the state but not officially under government control), a bloated civil service, decreasing foreign aid, and the French government’s devaluation in 1994 of the CFA franc. In 1994–95, confrontations between security forces and students protesting these economic hardships often turned violent. The government also faced a continuing crisis caused by Tuareg rebels, who began returning to their homes in the northern part of the country from Libya and Algeria, where they had migrated in times of drought in the 1970s and ’80s. Nevertheless, Konaré was reelected in May 1997 amid charges of electoral fraud and human rights abuses. The political situation subsequently became more stable, and a fragile peace was established with the Tuareg rebels.

In 2002 Touré, the former military leader who had handed the government over to civilians in 1992, was elected president of the country on a nonpartisan platform; he was reelected in 2007. His administration was faced with continuing economic problems, some of which were partially alleviated by debt relief—particularly the significant relief granted in 2003 and 2005. Touré’s administration was also occupied with various conflicts: renewed troubles with Tuareg rebels in 2006 in the north were tenuously resolved by peace agreement that same year, and in 2007 skirmishes between Guinean and Malian villagers over land rights resulted in injury, death, and loss of property. The governments of both countries intervened, resuming a long-dormant mixed patrol along the Mali-Guinea border and encouraging the use of peaceful negotiations to reconcile the disputes.

The tenuous peace in the north did not last very long, as Tuareg rebel activity resumed in 2007. Another problem in the northern region was the presence of an Algerian-based militant group, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghrib (AQIM), that had become active in Mali and other nearby countries. Tuareg rebel activity surged in 2012 after many of the Tuareg rebels who had traveled to Libya to fight for Muammar al-Qaddafi in that country’s 2011 revolt returned to Mali, well-armed from their time in combat. Malian troops complained that they did not have the necessary resources and weapons to curtail the Tuareg rebels, who successfully routed the Malian forces out of several northern towns and caused many civilians to flee the area.

credit: Encyclopaedia Britannica