Insurgency

that our efforts must be directed to the creation of local and national governmental structures that will serve their populations and over time replace the efforts of foreign partners that superior knowledge and in particular understanding of the human terrain is essential and that we must have the patience to persevere in what will necessarily prove long struggles.

Insurgency, however, can and will flourish in the modern environment.

The strains created by globalization, by the collapse of weak state structures, by demographic, environmental, and economic pressures, by the ease of cooperation among insurgent groups and criminals, and by the appearance of destructive radical ideologies.

all augur a period in which free and moderate governance is at risk.

Insurgency is the organized use of subversion and violence to seize, nullify, or challenge political control of a region.

As such...

It is primarily a political struggle in which both sides use armed force to create space for their political, economic, and influence activities to be effective.

Insurgency is not always conducted by a single group with a centralized organization.

And we'll start with the group responsible for all the biggest attacks, Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin, or JNIM for short, which is convenient.

Formed in 2017 after the merger of various insurgent groups, JNIM is an Al-Qaeda affiliated terror group, which according to most analysts, is the dominant jihadist group in the region.

And when we say dominant, we mean dominant, all caps, like Trump on social media.

JNIM has imposed a fuel blockade on Bamako that almost brought the entire country to its knees late last year.

The fact that a replacement isn't just being considered but publicly named is an indication of just how deeply the dissatisfaction with Goita has taken root.

Yet overthrowing him is unlikely to improve things.

The various insurgent groups in the country would very likely take advantage of the confusion that a coup creates to launch a new wave of attacks.

So this is the situation within Mali at the time we're recording this video.