Mali
is home to more than 12 million people, the vast majority of whom rely
on subsistence farming to survive. Due to rising temperatures which
leave many regions more vulnerable to drought and increasing food
prices, most Malians face challenges in feeding themselves and their
families.
In 2010, Mali was one of several countries to
be affected by severe food shortages in the Sahel region of west
Africa. Two years later, poor rains and inadequate harvests made the
situation harder still, with millions of Malians left seriously short of
food.
Unrest: though long considered one of the
most stable countries in the region, Mali experienced political unrest
in March 2012 when a military coup overthrew President Toure’s regime.
Power was subsequently handed over to an interim civilian government
ahead of new elections.
Conflict: fighting broke
out in northern Mali in early 2012, when rebels from the Tuareg ethnic
group were joined by Islamist military groups and mercenaries returning
home after fighting for the Gaddafi regime in Libya. The rebels took
advantage of the confusion caused by the coup to seize much of the north
of the country.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57409633/christians-flee-from-islamists-in-northern-mali/
BAMAKO, Mali - Mali's crisis deepened Wednesday, as officials in the
fabled northern city of Timbuktu confirmed that the Islamic rebel
faction that seized control of the town over the weekend has announced
it will impose sharia law.
Rebels in the country's
distant north have taken advantage of the power vacuum created last
month when renegade soldiers in the capital of Bamako overthrew the
nation's democratically elected leader. In the chaos that followed the
March 21 coup, they advanced on strategic towns in the north, including
the ancient city of Timbuktu, located over 620 miles from the capital.
The
ethnic Tuareg rebels included a secular faction fighting for
independence, and an Islamic wing, Ansar Dine, whose reclusive leader
called a meeting of all the imams in the city on Tuesday to make his
announcement.
"He had the meeting to make his message to
the people known, that sharia law is now going to be applied," said the
Mayor of Timbuktu Ousmane Halle, who was reached by telephone. "When
there is a strongman in front of you, you listen to him. You can't
react," he said, when asked what the reaction was of the imams of a
historic town known for its religious pluralism and its moderate
interpretation of Islam.
"Things are going to heat up here. Our women are not going to wear the veil just like that," said the mayor.
Mali's new junta may hit ex-prez with treasonAmid Mali's coup, Tuareg rebels take Timbuktu Kader
Kalil, the director of a communal radio station who was asked to cover
the meeting and who later interviewed the Ansar Dine leader Iyad Ag
Ghali, confirmed that sharia had been imposed.
He said in
addition to the wearing of the veil, thieves will be punished by having
their hands cut off and adulterers will be stoned to death.
In
a show of force, the Islamic rebels on Wednesday drove through the town
in a tank-like armored-personnel carrier, their ominous black flag
flapping in the wind above the cannon.
More than 90
percent of the city's roughly 300 Christians have fled since the city
fell to the rebels on Sunday, said Baptist Pastor Nock Ag Info Yattara,
who is now in Bamako. He said not one of the 205 people in his
congregation, which has worshipped in Timbuktu since the 1950s, has
stayed behind. "We cannot live like that," he said.
Mali
has effectively been partitioned in two ever since the rebel takeover.
The fighters started their insurgency in January, but only succeeded in
taking a dozen small towns before the coup. Then in a lightning advance,
they took the three largest towns including the provincial capital of
Kidal on Friday, the largest town of Gao on Saturday and Timbuktu on
Sunday. What is worrying is that it is not yet clear which rebel faction
has the upper hand.
Ansar Dine is believed to be allied
with an al Qaeda faction, which has already kidnapped over 50 Westerners
since 2003, including a Canadian diplomat in Niger and a British
national, who was later executed.
"The problem for us is
that we don't know who is the master of our town," said the mayor, who
explained that the Islamist faction had taken over the city's military
camp, while the secular rebel group was stationed at the airport. "What I
deplore is the departure of the Christian community. Many said to me
that they are obliged to leave. And they are right. I cannot guarantee
their safety. And these are people that have lived side-by-side with us
for centuries."
The United Nations Security Council on
Wednesday condemned the military coup, calling for the immediate
restoration of constitutional rule. In a statement read by U.S. Deputy
Ambassador Jeffrey DeLaurentis, the council called on the rebels who
have taken advantage of the coup to wrest control of the northern half
of the country to cease all violence.
"Mali has never
experienced such a situation," Mali's U.N. Ambassador Omar Daou told the
council. "Our people are divided. Our country is threatened with
partition. The north of Mali is today occupied by Tuareg rebels and
Salafists (Islamic extremists). Hundreds of thousands of refugees and
IDPs (internally displaced persons) are currently living in unimaginable
conditions."
The United States, France and the European
Union immediately cut all but essential humanitarian aid to the country.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Wednesday that $13 million
in aid to Mali's government had been halted. It includes about $600,000
in military assistance as well as funds supporting educational,
agricultural, health and investment programs run by the government.
"These
are worthwhile programs that are now suspended because that aid goes
directly to the government of Mali," Toner told reporters. Concerning
the coup, he added: "There's clearly a price to this."
Earlier
in the week, Mali's neighbors imposed an embargo, sealing off Mali's
borders for all but humanitarian aid. The landlocked country imports all
its gasoline, and the nation is expected to grind to a halt within
weeks, possibly days.
The humanitarian organization Oxfam
expressed concern that the embargo could impede humanitarian aid. The
organization pointing out that 40 percent of the country's goods come
from outside Mali.
"Some 3.5 million people are at risk
as the country has been hit by one of the worst food crises in decades,"
Eric Mamboue, Oxfam's country director in Mali, said in a statement.
"We are concerned that some of the sanctions imposed by neighboring
countries and supported by the Security Council, if maintained for more
than a few days, could serve to make an already desperate situation even
worse."
Good Friday 
Here are some fun facts about Christianity:
