Agenzia Fides

Rome (Agenzia Fides) - The north of Mali like the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo? Is what the Congolese newspaper "Le Potentiel" asks in an article entitled "Est de la RDC, Nord du Mali: des Similitudes frappantes" (East of the DRC, north of Mali, disconcerting similarities).
The eastern DRC has been for at least 20 years destabilized by internal forces, and especially by foreign, African and non, in a design aimed at depriving the Country of the enormous mineral wealth in the area (see Fides 03/04/2012) . The protagonists of the destabilization are groups of guerrillas, some of whom claim the protection of minorities, who they say are, "marginalized" by the central power of the State. The reasons, real or imagined, of these guerrilla movements have long since become a pretext to hide instead the looting of eastern DRC, with the complicity of neighboring Countries and foreign companies.
According to the Congolese newspaper, the same pattern can be applied also to the north of Mali, where the demands of the Tuareg (taken from the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawar, MNLA) are likely to take second place in favor of the control of illegal traffic (drugs, weapons and human beings) and the area of mineral resources (gold, oil and natural gas). In the article one wonders if the military coup leaders have been deceived in implementing the Coup of 22 March, far from strengthening the powers of the State to deal with the rebellion in the north (as they claimed), but weakened them.
"The Potentiel" emphasizes that the situation in Mali risks destabilizing the entire West Africa, coming to threaten Nigeria, the largest and most powerful Country in the area. Everything falls into a complex scheme of "balkanization" of the African states, rich in natural resources. For Balkanization one intends the process of division and reduction in size of the smaller States, taking advantage of their internal divisions, of political, ethnic, religious orders. Smaller States that are weak and easy prey to foreign powers that can leverage their resources at will.
In the process of destabilization of Saharan Africa - Sahelian jihadist groups like Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQMI) compete, too, which seem to be undermining the MNLA from areas of northern Mali just reclaimed from the control of the army, and the Nigerian Boko Haram sect. All these movements benefit from the looted weapons from the arsenals of the disbanded army of the Libyan Qadhafi. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 04/04/2012)