Tag Archives: politics

Six steps to fix a broken Mali

Posted on March 18, 2013 by brucewhitehouse

It’s too soon to declare Operation Serval a success, and there are already concerns about its eventual end, but the French-led military intervention in Mali has at least brought the country back from the brink of disaster, and opened up … Continue reading →

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The north, the army, and the junta

Posted on March 6, 2013 by brucewhitehouse

The Chadian government’s announcement of the deaths of two top commanders of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Abou Zeid and Mokhtar Belmokhtar, made headlines in the last week — although the French and Malian governments have so far given … Continue reading →

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Understanding Mali’s “Tuareg problem”

Posted on February 25, 2013 by brucewhitehouse

Last week I took part in a “teach-in” organized by Michigan State University devoted to the ongoing crisis in Mali. A half-dozen Africanist scholars joined a pair of retired U.S. ambassadors to discuss the origins and consequences of that country’s … Continue reading →

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Next, the hard bit

Posted on January 28, 2013 by brucewhitehouse

According to Al Jazeera, French forces have captured the airport a couple of kilometers outside Timbuktu. Footage from the network also shows a French column advancing northward near Niafunké being welcomed along the way. But the Ahmed Baba Institute has … Continue reading →

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Malian voices united (mostly)

Posted on January 21, 2013 by brucewhitehouse

For outsiders, among the most remarkable aspects of life in Mali is the music, the first of many things I fell in love with while living there in the late 1990s. Western journalists writing about the country’s worsening conflict this … Continue reading →

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Merci François !

Posted on January 13, 2013 by brucewhitehouse

The military intervention launched in Mali by French President François Hollande, known as Operation Serval, began Thursday, 10 January. Its stated mission is to push back the advance of Islamist forces and assure the security of France’s 6000 citizens in the … Continue reading →

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Impatient for action

Posted on December 15, 2012 by brucewhitehouse

The growing consensus regarding international military intervention to address the emergency in Mali is that it is now inevitable. But that doesn’t mean it’s imminent.  Hervé Ladsous, the UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping and Romano Prodi, the UN’s Special Envoy to the … Continue reading →

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The captain’s back

Posted on December 13, 2012 by brucewhitehouse

After several months of lying low, Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo returned to the limelight this week — in a big way. On Monday evening, December 11, some 20 soldiers acting under Sanogo’s orders went to the home of Prime Minister … Continue reading →

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Farewell, Bamako

Posted on June 28, 2012 by brucewhitehouse

Last weekend my family and I left Bamako and returned to our home in eastern Pennsylvania. The process of packing up one house, traveling thousands of miles through four airports with two young children and hundreds of pounds of luggage, … Continue reading →

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90 days of disaster

Posted on June 21, 2012 by brucewhitehouse

Several weeks ago I had an e-mail exchange with an acquaintance about events in Mali. I was uneasy about the way the military had suspended the country’s existing political institutions. I wrote, “the junta’s repeated attempts to ‘push the reset … Continue reading →

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