a new country has emerged in the southern Sahara

Azawad, which Malian Tuareg rebels have unilaterally declared and no one has recognized. It consists of the northern, desert part of Mali, including Timbuktu. Here’s a story about it in the Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/mali/9191760/Triumphant-Tuareg-rebels-fall-out-over-al-Qaedas-jihad-in-Mali.html

Azawad joins Puntland, the pirate state of Somalia which has not seceded from Somalia, but is autonomous and anarchic, on the southern tongue of the red sea and indian ocean. It’s the sort of polity William Burroughs would have been very interesed in.