Missed Opportunities for Comprehensive Security Sector Reform in Mali

First paragraph: Following the democratic revolution in March 1991, Mali became an example and even a model of democratic governance in West Africa, including in the area of transformational management of the security sector. The events of 2012 however called all this into question. That year was marked by the resurgence in the Tuareg rebellion in January, followed by a coup d’état in March against a regime that the organisers of the putsch described as “incompetent” (Konaté 2013: 252). Then, in April, Islamist jihadist movements also made their appearance. A temporary alliance of the rebellion, the jihadists and other transnational criminal operators (Moulaye 2014) including drug traffickers was created, which enabled them to occupy the northern regions of the country, constituting two thirds of the national territory. For almost a year, these criminals pillaged, plundered, raped, destroyed and carried out grave human rights violations marked by an unprecedented degree of violence. These events revealed the overall lack of governance in Mali, in the political, economic, social and cultural and security spheres.