Why the world is preparing for war in Mali

Regional volatility, imported weapons from Libya, and a poisonous religious ideology have turned the West African nation into a new Afghanistan

D.B. Grady

According to the commander of U.S. Africa Command, al Qaeda is operating terrorist training camps in Mali, a land-locked country in West Africa. In a recent speech to the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University, Gen. Carter F. Ham described the ascendant al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, saying that this al Qaeda affiliate has been recruiting and providing support to militant Islamic organizations in the region.

Mali was once considered to be among the few bright spots on an often-grim continent, but over the last decade it has seen a gradual erosion of stability. Earlier this year, a military junta overthrew the democratically elected government, and in April, separatists in the north declared independence. Islamic rebels soon rejected the idea of secession, however, in favor of imposing sharia law in Mali. Areas where sharia fell into practice soon saw the medieval brutality that typically follows its implementation. The general volatility of the region, coupled with weapons imported from Libya and a poisonous religious ideology, have rendered Mali — which is roughly twice the size of Texas (with half the population) — a new Afghanistan.

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David W. Brown

David W. Brown is coauthor of Deep State (John Wiley & Sons, 2013) and The Command (Wiley, 2012). He is a regular contributor to TheWeek.com, Vox, The Atlantic, and mental_floss. He can be found online here.