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ABSTRACT: This article examines the rise of an organization of Northern Malians living in Bamako during the crisis in 2012-2013, the Collectif des Ressortissants du Nord (COREN), run by Northern executive civil servants and political leaders. It presents a little-known aspect of the Malian crisis: the strong anti-rebellion and anti-jihadist views widely shared among Northerners - mostly Songhay and Fulani - living in Bamako at the time. The article suggests that COREN's nationalism differed from Southern nationalism, as it was informed by the complex relationship between Northern Mali and the State, and that it was rooted in a specific history of integration of Northern people - mostly Songhay - in the State apparatus since the colonial period. It discusses the ethnic and territorial identification of COREN in order to draw a complex picture of the anti-rebellion stance in Bamako during the crisis.
KEYWORDS: Mali, Bamako, civil servants, Northern Mali, ethnicity, Songhay, crisis, rebellion, nationalism.
The Mouvement National de Libération de l'Azawad (MNLA) launched its first attacks on Northern Malian cities in January 2012. The Malian army, underequipped and demoralized, did not manage to push back the fighters. The situation was worrysome to many Bamako inhabitants, especially to soldiers and their families. In the capital, presumed images of the soldiers' massacre in Aguelhok on January 24th were circulating.1 Between January 31st and February 3rd, soldiers' wives marched against the government, considering it had sent its soliders to their death by not giving them enough means to fight back. Rebels took Menaka on February 1st and Tessalit on March 10th. The troops' discontent in Bamako grew into a mutiny that turned into a coup during the night of March 22nd.
10.2979/mande.19.1.05
Nevertheless, the putsch leaders and their political and associative supports were not the only voices rising against the rebellion. The Collectif des Ressortissants du Nord (Coren) in Bamako kept calling out the different governments and the public in 2012 and 2013. While the soldiers were concerned with the country's honor and the fate of an army largely composed of Malians from Southern regions, the Coren's concerns seemed to be more directly linked with the political and humanitarian situation in the North. Using a slightly different nationalistic discourse, the Coren aimed to show that the rebels...