Blog

The situation along the demarcation line that separates Islamist-held northern Mali from the south of the country is agonizingly confusing. The Malian army claim to have recaptured the strategic town of Douentza, while the Islamist claim the complete opposite. How can we look through the sandstorm that surrounds the current Islamist advance south...
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Ansar ud-Dine speak up...at last! The Touareg lead mujahedeen group currently controlling large tracts of northern Mali have finally posted their 'Political Platform', on their website. It's one of the most illuminating and troubling documents that I've read so far during this entire crisis.
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The black salafist flag that flutters in the hot desert breeze over Timbuktu symbolises the abject failure of western policy in the Sahel over the past decade or more. Many millions of dollars and euros that have been spent by the US, France and the EU to train the armies of Mali, Niger and...
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Tweet A few days ago, the pro-Azawad website Toumast Press reported that Algerian army personnel were in Gao training fighters belonging to Ansar ud-Dine and MUJAO,  the Islamist militia who recently drove the Touareg separatist  MNLA from the city.  They also reported that the Algerians have been sending heavy weaponry to the city under...
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Tweet I’m hearing a steady stream of reports that Mokhtar Belmokthar, ala Laouaar (‘The One Eyed’), one of the supreme leaders of Al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), has been killed in Gao, during bitter street fighting between the National Movement of the Liberation of Azawad (NMLA) and the AQIM offshoots the Movement...
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A few days ago, on Friday March 23rd, I managed to reach an MNLA fighter called Intarhia on his satellite phone. When I called, he was in a 4x4 that was being driven across open desert, seemingly at top speed going by the incessant roar that formed a trying backdrop to our conversation....
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Tweet Here’s a letter I just wrote to the London Review of Books in response to an excellent essay on the future of the newspaper industry by John Lanchester, which you can read here: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v32/n24/john-lanchester/let-us-pay Dear LRB, This excellent essay is a very good example why good print journalism should, must, nay, will, I...
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Tweet The Tap Tap is the local transport in Port au Prince, the capital of Haiti.  As the country struggles with every cataclysm and curse known to a nation, it’s public transport system remains one of the beautiful in the world.  How about that for a paradox?! Tap Taps are decorated with a baffling...
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Tweet I just learned that Rhissa Ag Ogham, one time guitarist  and singer with the Touareg group Terakaft, died in a car accident a week ago.   Apparently he was driving back to Tamanrasset from Libya with his father, who also died in the accident.  Rhissa toured Europe with Terakaft back in 2007 and 2008,...
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Tweet I’ve been busy translating the lyrics for the forthcoming album by Tamikrest, the band from north eastern Mali lead by the talented Ousmane Ag Moussa. If you don’t know them already check out their existing album ‘Adagh’. One thing I always suspected but now know for sure is that Ousmane is a really...
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