RADICALIZATION IN MALI - A Primer

Private schooling is beyond the reach of many, as costs may exceed $600 annually, which is more than half of Mali’s average yearly salary.8 Jihadist hostility towards the secular education system, seen as a symbol of colonial domination and referred to derisively as ‘Western’ education, has led to a spike in attacks on schools and teachers.9 The number of schools declined from 530 to 228, while th. [...] These all raise the likelihood of the Tuareg rebellion, they capitalized on the power vacuum youth being radicalized for economic reasons; “Misery has that emerged in the wake of military coups, inefficient made the Sahel’s thousands of unemployed an easy target 24 governance, and failed security efforts. [...] Meddling with all aspects of the military is more than 1 million children under the age of five risking common, to the detriment of the military’s competence, death from severe malnutrition”.21 Combined, drought and organization, and morale. [...] 31 As noted with the example of rebels and poisoning wells.29 Not only is the army mistrusted by providing food and aid workers, as well as state failure to much of the population, the leadership’s failure to take the take the moral high road, this further surrenders legitimacy moral high ground on corruption and civil rights abuses to the radicals. [...] 32 Otherwise, the government’s inadequacies in securing the country and the people’s support play into the jihadists and rebels being depicted as “the winning team” for youth determining which path to choose.