Mali's borders were drawn by the colonial power, France, without any consideration of this country's ethnic composition. Mali needs the Tuareg like it needs a hole in the head, and there's nothing in common between the desert nomads and the African herders and farmers. The Tuaregs are poorer than jit, and AQM's drugs n' guns running pays well. A decent solution would be to grant these people their own state in the North of Mali and in parts of the Algerian South, and to do this before before the islamists irreversibly poison the Tuareg youths' minds.

Uh, sorry, it's spelled AQIM, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.