There are fewer global trouble spots where it is easier to say I told you so than Mali.
The dirt-poor, landlocked West African country has made one bad decision after another.
The military coups in 2020 and 2021 indubitably rank at the top of the list.
The pretext for the putsches was that the authorities were unable curb the jihadi extremism rendering the Sahelian nation of 22,5 million ungovernable.
When the regional organization ECOWAS slapped sanctions on Mali for its unconstitutional change of power, as it did again Burkina Faso, Guinea and Niger for exactly the same reason, they quit the body.
Ill advised as this show of temper was, it is explicable, as is the decision to end historic ties with Fence which has over the years sought military solutions to clearly socio-political and challenges.
Ironically, this is exactly the path that coup leader Assimi Goïta has chosen
One has to ask what he was thinking when he denounced the Agreement For Peace And Reconciliation in Mali that resulted from the Algiers process.
From its bitter history fighting integrists, Algeria is internationally recognized as an expert in this field.
Throughout its efforts to find peaceful solutions to Mali’s security problems and restore the stability crucial to development, the nation’s northern neighbour, with which it shares a 1400 km other has studiously avoided interfering in the internal affairs of Bamako.
It has, according to a statement from Algeria, shown “sincerity, good faith and unwavering solidarity towards Mali.”
Assimi has now been forced to suspended all political activity in Mali to silence opposition demands for an explanation as why he has broken his promise to hold February elections that would have restored Mali to constitutionality.
Algeria maintains Assimi’s “denunciation of the Agreement For Peace and Reconciliation by Mali absolutely does not correspond in any way to the truth or to reality.
“Indeed it has escaped no one’s notice the the Malian authorities have been preparing this decision for a long time.
“The warning signs for two years have been their almost total withdrawal from the implementation of the Agreement, their almost systematic refusal of any initiative tending to relaunch the implementation of this Agreement, their contestation of the integrity of international mediation, their desiignation of signatories to the Agreement, duly recognized, as terrorist leaders, their request to withdraw from (the UN stabilization mission) MINUSMA, the recent intensification of their arms programs financed by third countries and their recourse to international mercenaries.”
The Algeria statement said closing the military option is a threat to Mali unity and territorial integrity.
“It carries within it the seeds of civil war in Mali, it postpones national reconciliation instead of bringing it closer and it finally constitutes a source of real threat to regional peace and security.”
ends