The Role Of International Community In Resolving Mali's Political And Security 2013 Crisis

Mali is a landlocked country located in West Africa,with the population of 19 million and consists of two geographical areas.The southern part of the country's first built around the capital,Bamako,90% of the population is concentrated in the south,and it is mainly from black ethnic groups.The northern part of the country is going through at the time of the Sahel and Sahara,and the population is composed of Arabic and the largely nomadic Tuareg lifestyle.This area is at the country's borders,even allowing weapons and drugs in the area.In the northern region of the state it is difficult to control extremist groups whereby they have found shelter to operate.This study sought to examine the role of international community in resolving Mali's 2013 political and security crisis.To do this it used qualitative research design in presenting how the crisis was resolved.It also used theory on conflict resolution to bring together all disputing parties to come up with a common solution.The study found out the trigger to the crisis traced to the fall of the regime in Libya came with new weapons and some Tuareg hired by Colonel Kaddafi.The(MNLA)consisted of Malian army Tuareg attack weapon with more autonomy.The Malian army was poorly equipped for a number of setbacks.The same army went back to the south because of poor governance of the country.On 22 march 2012,the military seized power.On the ground,the battle is complex,one of which is Anshar dine advocating radical Islam,the two groups joined together against the government,but were very quickly to the control of the area.Under the Islamic sharia law in the area,and destroy the sites as a UNESCO world heritage site located in Timbuktu.the Islamic north has the sensitivity to the fragility of the Sahel in Bamako and concern of others,first of all the neighboring countries affected by the situation of refugees from Mali,also fear the uprising and terrorism,Burkina Faso,Mauritania,Niger,and ivory coast support the rapid idea response.The international community first got involved in resolving the crisis through the continental body the African Union(A.U).The A.U referred the matter to the regional body Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS)to resolve the crisis.However due to financial and technical challenges the A.U could not do much in resolving the conflict.It is on this basis that the U.N through Security Council got involved as a result of the spiraling of the conflict and security terrorism threat it posed to the region at global level.The U.N issued several resolutions on Mali that the international community would get involved in Mali's situation.Equally,Mali's president sought assistance from France government in suppressing the rebel/terrorist group from the north.Taken together,France through the U.N resolutions and A.U as well as Mali's presidents requests saw a combined effort of the international community getting involved in resolving Mali's security and political crisis.The crisis proved difficult to be resolved through negotiation in since the rebel and terrorists' group's demands could not be reconciled with that of the central government in Bamako.It is this standoff that military means posed as the only viable options in resolving the conflict.Towards this end,France government came in by providing financial,logistical and military intervention(serval).The French military and UNMISMA in combination with Mali military managed to push back the insurgence from the territories that were under their control.International community intervention proved decisive in resolving of the crisis.The study recommends that for an effective role of international community in crisis intervention there is need for proper planning,coordination and clear line of communication for swift response on crisis of this nature like Mali one.