The Republic of Mali is fast becoming the Afghanistan of Africa. The reference is being applied with growing enthusiasm by Western media. The tragic reality is that Mali, with massive size and relatively sparse population - 1,240,000 km² and a population of nearly 15.5 million - was, until a few months ago, paraded as a model of stability and fledgling democracy in West Africa. What happened to make Mali a hotbed for terrorism, militancy, ethnic cleansing and a potentially destructive war that could destabilize the whole region?
On March 22, a US-trained Mali Army Capt. Amadou Sanogo led a coup against President Amadou Toumani Touré, accusing him of not doing enough to challenge the growing separatist and militant threats in northern Mali. Despite the widespread condemnation of Sanogo’s coup, US media seemed more forgiving than their African counterparts, which saw the military takeover as a violent end to a two-decades-long democratization process. In an Associated Press article, it was claimed that the coup was a “surprise to Sanogo himself” (Fox News, July 7). AP conveniently interpreted the takeover as "Mali’s accidental coup", an inane conclusio
On March 22, a US-trained Mali Army Capt. Amadou Sanogo led a coup against President Amadou Toumani Touré, accusing him of not doing enough to challenge the growing separatist and militant threats in northern Mali. Despite the widespread condemnation of Sanogo’s coup, US media seemed more forgiving than their African counterparts, which saw the military takeover as a violent end to a two-decades-long democratization process. In an Associated Press article, it was claimed that the coup was a “surprise to Sanogo himself” (Fox News, July 7). AP conveniently interpreted the takeover as "Mali’s accidental coup", an inane conclusio
