Mali Crisis

I knew that things were looking increasingly bad in Mali over the last few weeks, and tonight I was rather shaken by the fact that CNN ran a feature on it, suggesting that Bamako was under a virtual siege by the Jihadists, and that the capital might fall. If Bamako falls, it is more or less the end of the Malian state.  I had already written a little appraisal of the situation in an email to my cousin:

There have been many jihadis groups established in northern Mali since the fall of Gaddafi. Now all Western assistance which was able to maintain an uneasy peace,  has been excluded by the Malian junta when they more or less expelled the UN and the French army,  and they are left to fend for themselves with some help of Russian mercenaries. The Malian army is too weak and cannot withstand the jihadist threat. 
The very effective means  used by the  Jihadists is a form of economic warfare:  the fuel transports that arrive in tankers on the road from mainly Senegal to this land locked country are attacked and blown up. In this way they  break down the Malian state in order to launch a devastating attack on Bamako. 

Now  these fuel transports can only take place with army escort, but this is untenable, and most of the time there is no electricity, as it is provided by diesel generators. This means that transport for the local population is becoming incredibly expensive, and people cannot get to work. Even the big taxi buses that used to cost just a few cents cost a fortune, and the price of gasoline for people's small mopeds, which used to be 775 FCFA per liter, is now 4,000 FCFA per liter, making life impossible.

But this is a more precise account of the crisis, and I recommend watching it: 

                                            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeRPw9qPuoE

I am so sad for my beloved Mali, and fear that if the situation deteriorates we may not be able to continue doing the small trading that has continued with Malimali, with the bogolan fabrics and  some jewellery from Djenne, which gave some much needed income for Dembele, who taught me the bogolan technique and worked with me all those years in Djenne...