But like many of the myths associated with colonialism, thereality is very different. Medieval texts show that Timbuktu has stood forcenturies as a center of Islamic culture and learning, at the juncture of traderoutes spanning thousands of miles across the Sahara, north to Morocco andEurope, east to Ethiopia and the Arabian peninsula. For Ali Farka Toure, thelegendary musician who fused Malian traditions with the blues, Timbuktu “ hisbirthplace “ was the “heart of the world.”
The multiple crises unfolding in and around Mali today areshaped by an intersection of trends that resonate far beyond the region: foodinsecurity and desertification linked to climate change, incompletedemocratization processes marked by social exclusion, and a growing population ofyoung people with poor employment prospects. With its government debilitated bya coup, the Malian political system “ previously an acclaimed example ofdemocratic progress in the region “ has been unable to maintain its reach intoits northern regions, now characterized by trafficking in small arms,narcotics, migrants and hostages.
The north of the country is under the control of militant,foreign-sponsored radical Islamist movements, the latest dangerous permutationin a century long series of Tuareg rebellions. Reports of human rights abusesare mounting daily. As if this were not enough, the region is in the grip of amajor food crisis. More than 18 million people across the Sahel are alreadyaffected by or at risk of acute food shortages.
Mali now matters more than ever. And it matters for tworeasons. First, the country is not the isolated place of myth that the Timbuktulegend implies. Political crisis and state fragmentation in Mali are asignificant threat to political stability in the region, where bordering statessuch as Guinea and Cote d’Ivoire are still struggling to emerge from recentcrises. There are worrying signals that the radical militant presence innorthern Mali is already drawing in disaffected youths from elsewhere in theregion. And the fact that a crisis of this nature has taken root so rapidly inwhat appeared to be a stable democracy has significant implications extendingfar beyond Mali’s borders.
If unchecked, the Mali crisis threatens to create an arc ofinstability extending west into Mauritania and east through Niger, Chad andSudan to the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Aden, characterised by extendedspaces where state authority is weak and pockets of territorial control areexercised by transnational criminals. The activities of Somali pirates in theGulf of Aden could soon find a parallel in the arid lands of the southernSahara.
It is imperative that an early resolution to this crisis isreached, and that international support is provided to those national andregional actors who are working to secure a political settlement and to dealwith the complex security issues that have emerged in the country.
Second, the combination of conflict and politicalinstability in Mali and the food crisis now taking root across the Sahel havealready had acute humanitarian consequences. More than 266,000 refugees havefled Mali since January, mainly to Mauritania, Niger, Burkina Faso and Algeria.Around 174,000 people are displaced within Mali. The abrupt displacement of somany people has had profound consequences for their welfare, and aid agenciesare struggling to meet their basic needs in areas that are affected byinsecurity and characterized by acute logistical challenges. Cholera outbreakshave already occurred in northern Mali, and people continue to flee, placing ahuge strain on local resources.
We must expand the humanitarian response to this crisis, andnot allow it to slip off an international agenda that has been completelypreoccupied by events in Syria. Without an early political resolution of thecrisis, there is a real risk that many of these people will be condemned to afuture of protracted displacement and deprivation, just as has happened withmillions of refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia. There is also a riskthat the conflict will spread, becoming a threat to regional “ and even global“ peace and security. We cannot allow this to happen. Mali’s crisis is alreadyaffecting many thousands of lives across a vast geographic area. To ignore suchperil is foolish.
Antonio Guterres is the United Nations HighCommissioner for Refugees and former prime minister of Portugal
