“Is it about liberation of Mali, or Uranium and Oil Resources?”
The Arab Spring uprising led to the U.S.-backed NATO incursion into Libya last March, in which Muammar Gadhafi was assassinated. Some experts believe the real motive was Libya’s oil, the eighth largest reserves in the world. After the collapse of the Gadhafi government, oil ministers from Europe raced to meet with rebel leaders to secure their slice of oil. The former African colonial powers--France, Britain, Germany and Italy--account for over 80 percent of Libya’s oil, with France receiving over thirty percent. Security for Libya’s vast arms caches was not part of the minister’s agenda.
Gadhafi had become difficult to deal with: raising prices, adding fees, and making political demands. The Arab Spring provided the perfect opportunity to remove Gadhafi from power. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov in a February 23 New York Times article stated, the spread of terrorism in North Africa was linked to Western intervention in Libya, and “singled out the French in particular for arming the rebels who ousted the Libyan leader”. He further noted, “France is fighting against those in Mali whom it had once armed in Libya against Qaddafi”.
Fianian Cunningham in October 2012 wrote, “For decades, France has contributed directly to the violence and instability that has wracked so much of Africa. Coups, counter-coups, assassinations, destabilization and abductions - perhaps no other country among the colonial powers has afflicted the Earth’s largest continent with so much grief and ruination.”
The chaos in Libya was the catalyst that destabilized Mali. Tuareg fighters in Gadhafi’s army returning to Mali brought was them large caches of weapons, which fell into the hands of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Ansar Dine, and the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWA). These Islamists were involved in the attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, in which Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed.
The MNLA Tuareg separatists had for years pressed to establish an independent state. In January 2012 they attacked and slaughtered almost ninety Malian soldiers, near their stronghold in Kidal, outgunning them with weapons from Libya. The MNLA goals clashed with Islamist extremists, who wanted to make Mali an Islamic state, ruled under Sharia law; soon the Tuaregs were pushed aside. The AQIM, MOJWA and Ansar Dine took control of northern of Mali, and spread their tentacles across the Sahel.
On March 21, 2012, frustrated by President Amadou Toumani Toure’s lack of support to subdue the Islamists, mid-level officers and soldiers deposed Toure. In the chaos that followed Islamists took control of the northern towns of Gao, Timbuktu, and Kidal, and established Sharia law; undertaking numerous atrocities against the people; almost 500,000 have fled to neighboring countries. Malian leaders blamed NATO for the instability that led to the coup, and the swift destabilization of the country.
France pressed the U.N. Security Council to deploy an African stabilization force noting, “Mali’s territorial integrity should be restored as soon as possible and that any lost time would only complicate matters”. After three U.N. resolutions calling for action, approval was still withheld. Meanwhile Islamists became more entrenched in northern Mali--a region the size of France.
On January 10, 2013 France agreed to send a military force to Mali to stop the advance of Islamists heading south to Bamako, the capital. The U.S. provided cargo planes to transport French and African troops to liberate the northern towns. French and military troops from seven neighboring military supported the Malian army to drive the Islamists from Konna, Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal.
Currently there are 4,000 French troops and over 4,000 African troops in Mali. With the dispersion of the Islamists into the vast desert region, intelligence information was crucial, making a drone base in nearby Niger important. Senator Christopher A. Coons, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee, recently noted “U.S. law prohibits direct assistance to Mali’s armed forces” resulting from the military coup. Drones over Mali seem incongruous, since military assistance was rejected by the U.S. in April when President Traore sought support to subdue the Islamists.
The French military coalition drove the Islamists from Gao and Timbuktu. However the French gave the green light to Chadian soldiers and the MNLA to drive the Islamists from Kidal. Malian troops were reportedly excluded for fear of reprisals against the MNLA. Bamako government leaders were stymied by the French move to prevent the Malian army from subduing the Islamists that held Kidal hostage. Further tensions occurred with Malian troops in the town of Menaka, when Islamists left during an aerial attack by the French, and was quickly occupied by the MNLA who lost the territory last year.
The French emboldened the MNLA to take control of several northern towns. Their leaders have told the Bamako government they refuse to negotiate on a unification policy. At the same time, they accused the Malian army of committing atrocities against the Tuaregs. The MNLA has vowed to challenge the Malian troops deployed in the northern towns of Timbuktu and Gao.
The French did not confer with Bamako, before allowing the MNLA to take control of Kidal. The MNLA has also had direct talks with the French, claiming to have the support of the Tuareg minority, who feel disenfranchised and fear reprisals by the Malian troops.
Interim President Traore recently stated he is open to talks: “The only group that we could think of negotiating with...is certainly the MNLA. But of course on the condition that the MNLA drops any pretense to a territorial claim, that it accepts the integration of Mali once and for all”, and “Regarding the Islamists Ansar Dine...the only solution for them is to solemnly declare that they renounce Sharia law”.
The MNLA have told the French they would help find the kidnapped workers from the Areva SA uranium mine in neighboring Niger. They promised to get their release, which may be one of the reason’s the French gave them control of Kidal.
With the arrival of a drone base in Niger, and one hundred U.S. military personnel, the French may have a two-fold mission in mind: One to help subdue insurgents, and second to protect Areva’s uranium mine which borders on Mali. Geological studies indicate there is a large uranium deposit located near the town of Kidal. With the MNLA controlling this area, and seeking independence, a mining concession could be a motivation for the French liberation.
Niger has the third largest uranium deposits in the world, with extraction of over 4,000 tons annually. Areva has been the main operator since the 1960’s. The precious “yellow-cake” provides fuel for one-third of France’s nuclear power reactors. Pundits theorize that France’s support of Mali, to subdue the Islamists, is more about uranium since Islamists had controlled the towns near Niger’s border, putting the mining operation at risk.
According to writer Stefan Simanowitz, the French intervention in Mali could be linked to uranium: “A key reason that the governments in Mali and Niger are not keen to give the Tuareg greater autonomy is that the areas that they inhabit are home to vast natural resources... the world’s third largest uranium reserves as well as substantial oil reserves.” He pointed out that Areva had lost its exclusive right to Niger’s uranium to China, India, Britain, South Africa, America, Canada and Australia. This is why France could not afford to lose Mali.
Simanowitz noted that French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius stated, “Key interests were at stake for us, for Africa, for Europe, so we had to act quickly”, surmising uranium was the key interest. Frances’s main power source is from uranium, with over seventy-five percent of the electricity produced coming from this source.
The French military incursion in Mali should be to help defeat the Islamists, build democratic institutions and support the National Reconciliation Conference—all important to Mali’s success as a democratic state--not the extraction of Mali’s mineral resources.