The Washington Post quotes Africa Center Director J. Peter Pham on the recent attack on a luxury hotel in Mali:
“Mali today is as fragile as it was before the coup in 2012,” said Peter Pham, director of the Africa Studies Program at the Atlantic Council in Washington, referring to the military power grab that occurred as a rebellion in the north gained strength. France intervened the following year, after Islamist fightersseized control of a large chunk of territory.