Allies in Libya, Enemies in Mali
Ali Hashem comments on the roots of the conflict in Mali, the connections to the campaign which overthrew Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and the terrorist insurgency that is dividing Mali and destabilizing North Africa.
Thanks to French President Francois Hollande, who felt the need to step in to contain the collapse of Mali, and a calamitous rescue operation by Algerian forces that resulted in the deaths of 37 hostages, the Western media has discovered Mali.
The largest West African country is under threat of division in a war that sees government troops, along with a Western coalition led by the French, battling well-armed ethnic Tuaregs and the al-Qaeda-affiliated Ansaruldin group, who were already at war with each other.
