Those articles nutshell some of it, but I'll give my own brief account. I'm not as familiar with the situation in Guinea-Bissau since it's brand new, but I have a pretty close connection to what's happening in Mali.
In January, an ethnic enclave in norther Mali started a rebellion with the goal of forming their own state. They're called Tuaregs, a nomadic group of desert people who have lived in the sahel and Sahara region for hundreds of years. They rose up in January for the third or fourth time in the last couple decades, but Mali's president, Toure, has been sort of half-heartedly fighting them off ever since.
Around the time the rebellion started, Tuareg fighters from Libya returned to norther Mali and joined the rebellion. Northern Mali has had close ties with Ghaddafi for decades, as he has supported them in the past. When they returned, they brought heavy weapons and a lot of experience, as well as ex-military officers.
After months of fighting, junior officers around Bamako, the capital city, grew tired of Toure's handling of the war, and stormed the presidential palace, sending the president into hiding and declaring military rule over the country even though an election was supposed to happen within the month. After the coup leaders, under Sanogo, took over, they military abandoned the major northern cities of Gao, Timbuktu, and Kidal. Since then, rebels have taken over well more than half of Mali, declared their own state of Azawad, and internecine fighting is now happening among the rebels over Tuareg secularists and Islamists who want sharia law instituted in the north.
Sanogo has since been forced to give up power, after ECOWAS, an organization of West African states, instituted an embargo on Mali, causing widespread food, fuel, and power shortages. The leader of the legislature has since taken over since Toure resigned and Sanogo stepped down, but half the country has broken away, much of the military has defected, and what's left is ill-equipped to fight a war against the rebels.
I've been following this story closely for the last couple months, and now with the news of Guinea-Bissau today, I felt like I had to say something.
My best and closest friend in the world is in her third year in the Peace Corps, and she's currently stationed in Bamako. I've been getting sporadic emails and short phone calls from her describing what's happening, and the Peace Corps has since evacuated all volunteers from the country when the rebels took the north. They're sending most of them home, but my friend wants to go back to complete her PhD dissertation research. It's been very trying for her family and for me. She's incredibly strongwilled, and is very dedicated to her service over there, as well as to her research. She's currently in Ghana weighing her options, and the situation in Mali seems like it could either stabilize or descend into full blown chaos. It was one thing for her to be stuck in the middle of that with the Peace Corps backing her up, but if she goes back in, she'll be on her own.
To add to this, Guinea-Bissau is right next to Senegal, where another of my longtime friends is stationed for her Peace Corps service.
I keep hoping they'll just pack up and come home, but I know they're both too determined to stay to do that. And I'm proud of their determination, but being so out of touch with loved ones in danger, real, ever-present danger, is somewhat new to me. My brother got out of the Marines just before Afghanistan, so we never really had to worry that much.
Anyway, just thought I'd share. Tough times in West Africa.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
