Geopolitics
The Toll-Booth War: How Mali's Conflict Became a Profitable Business for Juntas and Jihadists
A jihadist blockade in Mali has morphed into a lucrative toll economy where both the insurgents and the military junta profit from taxing the same fuel convoys, revealing a war financed by shared plunder rather than fought for ideology or territory. This grotesque symbiosis, enabled by the West's abandonment and exploitative new 'partners,' epitomizes the neo-colonial resource curse that sacrifices African sovereignty and stability for the enrichment of local elites and their foreign backers.
