Photo: Guaka, 2006.
Note from Jonathan D. Greenberg: This letter is written by a Malian democracy and human rights advocate who is well known to us as a close friend of the USF Institute for Nonviolence and Social Justice. Because this letter expresses the author’s personal experience and analysis in an extremely dangerous war situation, where civilians speak out at great peril, we are not using the author’s name in order to protect their safety.
Following the military coup of March 2012 and the occupation of the northern regions of Mali by the Tuareg separatist armed groups and jihadists in 2012, the Malian transition authorities sought the French government’s intervention in January 2013 to prevent jihadists from reaching Bamako and to liberate Mali’s northern regions of Gao, Timbuktu, and Kidal. The French military force “Serval” liberated Timbuktu and Gao but offered Kidal as an independent sanctuary to the Tuareg separatists because of the region’s abundant natural resources. (See the article “La France a donné Kidal aux séparatistes Touaregues”, by Nicolas Normand, an ex French Ambassador to Mali according to Radio France Internationale.). In 2013, the French Ambassador to Mali, Christian Rouyer, vehemently opposed the French army’s collaboration with the Tuareg rebels. This costs him his post as an Ambassador. Up to today, the Malian government and its security forces do not control Kidal.
The French force was called in to achieve three objectives: (i) to fight and eliminate the terrorist groups; (ii) to increase the Malian army’s capacity to fight the jihadist enemy, and (iii) to economically help local people. According to Laurent Bigot, a fired ex-French diplomat in West Africa, the French force Berkhane has failed on all the three objectives. M. Bigot goes on to further say that the security situation has even worsened as northern Mali has become a “red zone” and the French military operation is now less and less legitimate and viewed as an occupying force. The paradox for Malians is that how come with a combined military force (of 4500 French troops, 14500 UN/Minusma force, 5000 G5 Sahel men, and Fama, the malian force), this Armada, with sophisticated weapons and surveillance technology, could not defeat less than 3000 terrorists.
It’s now widely understood that the French government, in its quest for oil, uranium, and gold has created an incoherent situation in Mali whereby it works with all parties: jihadists, Tuareg separatists and the Malian government as well. This ambiguous French foreign policy in Mali and the Sahel region led to the killing of hundreds of Malian civilians and soldiers by jihadists between 2018 and 2019 according to human rights organizations (FIDH and AMDH).
Malian civilians are infuriated by such events. Mass killings combined with bad governance, rampant corruption, impunity, economic hardships and mass suffering led to a Malian mass uprising in June 5th, 2020 dubbed “M5 RFP” which was quelled in bloodshed on July 10 to 12, 2020 by the Malian anti-terrorist force. The junta (CNSP), with support and outcries from the Malians, stepped in and toppled the regime of IBK, on August 18, 2020, in a bloodless coup.
For seven years, these atrocities have been happening under the eyes of MINUSMA, the UN arm which is mandated to bring peace and stability in Mali and Economic Community of West African States (CEDEAO) which imposed an embargo on Mali following the military coup. It is now a largely shared view, in Mali and abroad, that the French government’s recklessness for natural resources is the impediment to peace and stability in Mali. These conclusions have been corroborated by French experts on the Sahel region and ex-French diplomats. Please share this letter widely with US advocacy groups and call on the US government, UN, and the French Embassy in the US to invite the French government to let Mali recover its sovereignty and territory integrality. The protection of the civilian population should be the overwhelming obligation of all parties. Thank you.
Editor’s note: Hundreds of thousands of Malian civilians are suffering from food insecurity, malnutrition and internal displacement as a result of the political violence and social deterioration described in this letter, as part of the massive humanitarian, food security and refugee crisis engulfing the entire Sahel region. If you are interested to support food and refugee assistance in Mali and the Sahel, please consider making a donation to the following national and local NGO with active humanitarian aid programs in the field:
