Urgency of rethinking humanitarian assistance: Mali in the crossfire of international terrorism

This policy brief asserts that the spread of the conflict in Mali is based on the ‘ungoverned spaces’ theory. A careful examination of the geography of conflict in Mali and the wider Sahel suggests that its epicenter lies in the country’s ‘ungoverned spaces’. Despite the disintegration of the Libyan state and the flow of small arms and light weapons across the border, conflict in Mali has remained concentrated in peripheral areas where state institutions are absent. The ‘ungoverned spaces’ theory holds that the vacuum created by the absence of state authority in northern Mali is filled by non-state actors, who use these areas to recruit, plan logistics, establish bases, generate funds, and commit crimes.6 States with limited financial and human resources - and, more importantly, those with weak political and economic systems, such as those in the Sahel - are vulnerable to the emergence of ungoverned spaces. Although ungoverned spaces are often associated with collapsed or failed states, some of the most pronounced examples on the continent exist within well-governed and stable democracies.