Drug Trafficking and the Crisis in Mali

/51838-drug-trafficking-and-the-crisis-i

  • Drug Trafficking and the Crisis in Mali

    http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/190-issues/51838-drug-trafficking-and-the-crisis-in-mali.html

    By Abdelkader Abderrahmane
    Institute for Security Studies
    August 6, 2012

    Since the coup on 22 March, the situation in Mali has drastically deteriorated, in particular in the north of the country where numerous opposition forces have strengthened their positions. Moreover, the growing presence of drug traffickers who are taking advantage of the power vacuum in Mali have increasingly complicated the situation in the north. The country is becoming a transit center for the international trafficking of narcotics originating from Latin American drug cartels seeking to export their ‘goods’ to Europe. Moreover, opposition groups such as AQMI, Ansar Dine, MUJAO and Boko Haram are financing their weapon acquisition through the trafficking of drugs, which puts the country at an even greater risk.

    Mali has until recently been regarded as one of the most politically stable countries in West Africa. However, since the fall of the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi last year and the coup d’état on 22 March against former Malian President Amadou Toumani Touré, the situation in Mali, and especially in the north, has dramatically deteriorated. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Ansar Dine (Defenders of the Faith) and the Unity Movement for Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) forces have strengthened their presence in the north and some intelligence reports even indicate a growing link between AQIM and the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram.

    #mali #afrique-de-l-ouest #conflits