TOOLS

AlertNet for journalistsTools and training for the media

Job vacanciesCareers in aid and relief

Interactive statisticsExplore humanitarian facts and figures

DO MORE with AlertNet

Mali launches $69 mln plan to control, develop north

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 14:29 GMT

Source: reuters // Reuters

* Bamako launches plan northern recovery plan

* Insecurity has cost state $110 mln in tourist revenues

BAMAKO, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Mali has launched a 32 billion CFA franc ($69 million) programme to try and restore the government's authority in its desert north where a mix of rebels and criminals have fomented insecurity through kidnappings, smuggling and uprisings.

The government is hoping to develop the north, which is potentially rich in resources and was once frequented by foreign tourists but remains impoverished and awash with gunmen, including groups linked to al Qaeda.

Having lost some $110 million in revenues from tourism over the last two years, President Amadou Toumani Toure said the government would hit back by redeploying some administrative offices and providing infrastructure and development.

"Poverty and insecurity are perfect breeding grounds for terrorism and fundamentalism," Toure said on Wednesday while explaining the two-year plan on state television.

The influence of the central government in the isolated north has always been weak, and nomadic Tuareg rebels launched rebellions there in the 1990s and in 2007.

But Mali, Niger and Mauritania have struggled to tackle the spreading insecurity, which has seen drug smuggling rise and dozens of Westerners kidnapped and mostly end in the hands of al Qaeda's North African wing.

Mali's government said earlier this month the insecurity had cost the country some 50 billion CFA francs ($110 million) in lost tourism receipts and 8,000 jobs over the past two years .

Western nations led by former colonial power France and the United States have led efforts to provide military support to these countries but analysts say more progress in development and tackling corruption is needed. ($1 = 461.259 CFA Francs) (Reporting by Tiemoko Diallo; writing by David Lewis)