Gavin Jacobson interviews Rahmane Idrissa in Equator:
To what extent is the current offensive in Mali unprecedented?
The violence itself isn’t unprecedented by the standards of the Sahel. What is spectacular is the way this particular insurgency was organised – the jihadists and rebels were able to strike multiple points simultaneously – particularly in Kidal, the symbolic capital of the region claimed by the Tuareg rebels, and Kati, the headquarters of the Malian army. These two places are 1,500 kilometres apart.
In Kidal, they managed to expel both the Malian army and their Russian auxiliaries. At Kati, they killed the defence minister – an extremely important figure, the man who brought the Russians in, who spoke Russian, and who had received military training in Russia. He drove that whole policy. The intelligence chief was also seriously wounded. So the insurgents have essentially decapitated the security apparatus of the Malian state. Assimi Goïta was in hiding until 29 April, leaving the state silent and its citizens disorientated. The junta can no longer offer a solution to this crisis, and it has in fact turned into an obstacle to a solution. People are now asking who is really in charge, and who might succeed them.
More here.
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