What hope for peace in Mali?
Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta won the run-off election on 16 August and will now start a second term. Against a backdrop of violence, crisis and instability, can President Keïta bring about the changes needed for a lasting peace? This opinion piece from the SWAC/OECD Secretariat suggests that the government should refocus its attention on northern Mali to make it once again a central and shared space that is more than just the “north of Mali. “The aim should be to develop economic co-operation with North Africa, increase trade and interaction and build a common future. Mali’s northern regions would then no longer be on the margins of African economic development, but play a strategic geographic and economic role as vital nodes in a vibrant regional network stretching between Lagos and Algiers.”
