Years of Multi-Actor Intervention in Mali with too Little to Show
The United Nations
Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) has as part
of its mandate protection of civilians. But it is interesting that MINUSMA seems to have more of documents to show the attacks in the villages
than they do actually intervene and protect. There is not much that MINUSMA has
done since 2013 to disrupt and reduce the impacts of the conflict on civilians.
Simply, it has largely failed at least in as far as protection of civilians is concerned. The challenges related to coordination and control,
competing and clashing interests between and among multiple actors particularly
the so called G5 Sahel (G5S) made of troops from Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali,
Mauritania and Niger and then the ongoing parallel "war" by French
forces makes Mali a complex and difficult situation. This once again brings to the fore the fact that multiplicity of actors
(interveners) in conflict situations is in and by itself a major problem and at times a contributor to conflict escalation than it is a de-escalation. But little attention seems to be paid to this factor even as policy makers, particularly through the UN and its hybrid peacekeeping missions and peace support operations, seem to trumpet the significance of many actors into a truism. I think we have a bigger, unnecessary and confusing presence of
external actors in Mali. A factor that has basically complicated the conflict then helping it. As we speak, nobody seems to even know what needs and/or should be done to address
the situation in Mali any more even as France keeps on recolonizing (that is if they finished colonizing) Mali. We no longer even can locate the actual conflict
causing factors in Mali especially as more actors join in; new formations and
alliances are formed, new issues emerge and old ones evolve, geographical
localization and conflict epicenters shift and spillovers occur. How, for instance,
did the conflict epicenter spread from the Tuareg regions of the North in 2012
to current armed violence in central Mali and even further down to the South?
Years of Multi-Actor Intervention in Mali with too Little to Show
Reviewed by Ibrahim Magara
on
August 26, 2019
Rating:

No comments: