MOPTI — Before Islamists seized the northern half of Mali, Mamadou Sekere sold masks and jewelry in Timbuktu to European tourists who rode camels and slept in the desert under the stars. Now, Sekere is in Mopti where one of his wives gathers leaves to feed the family. His other wife, who stayed behind when he fled Timbuktu, calls several times a day. He's got 10 children with one and eight with the other, but can only shake his head when asked where they all are now. Sekere waits for the day when the Islamists leave Timbuktu, where they recently carried out a public execution in front of 600 people and have banned items ranging from perfume to Nokia ringtones. Sekere's handicrafts are hidden inside the walls of his home until he, and the tourists, can return. “Here I am getting by only on the generosity of my friends,” Sekere told a reporter from the upper level of a mud home in this central Malian town, now home to thousands of displaced northerners. “There at least I have a plot of land that I can work.” Sekere is one of nearly 500,000 people who fled northern Mali since the crisis began earlier this year. Many, like Sekere, who came to the south have found life difficult because unemployment is high. Ordinary Malians and international experts alike are not sure what will reunite and bring back political stability to a country that until recently had a reputation as one of West Africa's most steady democracies. “This is not only a humanitarian crisis; it is a powder keg that the international community cannot afford to ignore,” US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said recently. The Obama administration, France and neighboring African countries are all weighing what will be the most effective policies to halt the rapid success of extremists in Mali. The 15-nation West African regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, has discussed sending 3,000 troops to help oust the militants from the north. Many, though, question how Mali's weak military could take the lead on such an intervention. — AP
