Macron honors 'sacrifice' of 13 French soldiers killed in Mali
The French have been in northern Mali for six years.
And back in June we noted "Africa: Mali disintegrates"
Followed five days later by ""Mali to produce lithium by 2020 with 694,000 T discovered""
Followed in September by ""Burundi rare earths mine targets 20-fold output boost" (RBW:Lon)":
...Next up, What's going on in Mali?I guess we didn't mention the U.S. sanctions because they were not announced until July 26.
I mean beyond the Mansa Musa richest person who ever lived angle.
And the artisanal miners finding 1-kilogram+ gold nuggets.
As noted in a June post where our little Burundi story appeared:
Something's up but we don't know what.
Oftentimes what appears to be factional fighting, such as that in Nigeria or Kashmir is just that, factional fighting. But sometimes there is opportunity behind the headlines.
And if it matters the U.S. Establishment's paper of choice (and favorite of CIA story spinners) the Washington Post is telling their version of what's up, fairly aggressively:
What's behind the escalating ethnic violence in Mali? Here's what you need to know.
Mali has been struck by ethnic violence the scope of which it's never before seen: On March 23, the predominately ethnic Fulani villages of Ogossagou and Welingara in central Mali were destroyed...
But they followed on the announcements from 2012:
U.N.
EU
U.S.
And UN again, 2017.
And now this. From Bloomberg via Mining Weekly, November 13/14:
Jihadist groups cash in on artisanal gold rush in West Africa
ABIDJAN – Artisanal gold mines in West Africa’s Sahel zone have become a source of financing and recruits for Islamist militants in the region as they secure sites or levy illicit taxes, according to the International Crisis Group.Sometimes I wonder if it isn't all about the mining.
“The main jihadist groups in the Sahel benefit financially from gold extraction – an activity that they consider lawful – in their areas of influence,” the Brussels-based advocacy group said in a report. “They do so in ways that vary from region to region.”
Armed groups with links to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State have claimed hundreds of lethal attacks in West Africa. An insurgency that began in northern Mali in 2012 has spread to neighboring Burkina Faso and is threatening coastal states including Benin and Ivory Coast. The emergence of the jihadists coincided with the 2012 discovery of a gold vein that crosses the Sahara desert from Mauritania to Sudan.
Today, more than two-million people are believed to be directly employed in small-scale mining in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, the group said. Malian Mining Minster Lelenta Hawa Baba Ba told a conference in the capital, Bamako, this week that 400 000 people work in the country’s artisanal gold mines, some in areas where the state has little or no control....MORE
