i noted the other day that the tuareg rebels have reached the borders of they claim for their country of azawad, so today they declared a cease-fire. with douentza as the frontier between azawad and mali, mopti (the town i spent the most time in when i visited mali) will be spared any fighting, at least for now.
while i don't think azawad will get any recognition from the outside world, i also doubt that the malians will be able to dislodge the rebels without outside help. meanwhile outside help is not forthcoming with the coup alienating both western powers and all of mali's neighbors. so this looks like a stalemate until the mali coup issue is resolved.
while i don't think azawad will get any recognition from the outside world, i also doubt that the malians will be able to dislodge the rebels without outside help. meanwhile outside help is not forthcoming with the coup alienating both western powers and all of mali's neighbors. so this looks like a stalemate until the mali coup issue is resolved.
