There seems to be a running theme in Sahelian states whereby countries are divided between Northern Arabs and Southern African, with Northerners being marginalised and provoking conflict. Could there just be a genuine argument for enabling Northern secession and being done with it?
Correct - both Niger and Mali have that problem. However, I doubt secession would happen for three reasons:
1) The Tuareg region in Mali (iforas) and Niger (Agadez) have uranium. Niger sells its uranium now, Mali still hasn't really dug up its uranium yet. Giving up these regions to Tuaregs would be losing resources. Mali and Niger are both gold states now and uranium provides some diversification for Niger, while Mali needs to diversify from gold.
2) If Azawad existed right now, there is a fear that extreme islamists would have more power than the secular nationalists. Algeria, Mali and Niger would not want to border a state with ties to radical extremism or a state with an expansionist ideology. Algeria also has Tuareg minorities and Azawad may want to take parts of Algeria too.
There seems to be a running theme in Sahelian states whereby countries are divided between Northern Arabs and Southern African, with Northerners being marginalised and provoking conflict. Could there just be a genuine argument for enabling Northern secession and being done with it?
Correct - both Niger and Mali have that problem. However, I doubt secession would happen for three reasons:
1) The Tuareg region in Mali (iforas) and Niger (Agadez) have uranium. Niger sells its uranium now, Mali still hasn't really dug up its uranium yet. Giving up these regions to Tuaregs would be losing resources. Mali and Niger are both gold states now and uranium provides some diversification for Niger, while Mali needs to diversify from gold.
2) If Azawad existed right now, there is a fear that extreme islamists would have more power than the secular nationalists. Algeria, Mali and Niger would not want to border a state with ties to radical extremism or a state with an expansionist ideology. Algeria also has Tuareg minorities and Azawad may want to take parts of Algeria too.
Funny, isn't it? How "1591" seems old to us but to persons living then 1200 was old, 1591 not so much. " By 1591 AD, Morocco "