(PRESSED SUBMIT IN ERROR)
they are as opposed to the al-Qaeda infiltration as anyone in the south and they have been negotiating with the government in Bamako for some degree of autonomy in return for driving out the Muslin extremists.

Well, any regime in those parts doesn't last long,
Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, the most hated man on the Afican continent was in power from 1965 to 1997.