Journal of the Spanish Institute for Strategic Studies Núm. 12 / 2018 Revista del Instituto Español de Estudios Estratégicos n.º 12 - Año: 2018 - Págs.: 325 a 366 340 Finally, all the values and indices presented are clearly reflected in the United Na-tions’ Human Development Index (HDI), of a total of 188 countries. VIOLENT CONFLICT AND JIHADIST TERRORISM: MALI AND BOKO HARAM Because of poor implementation and lack of recognition, state authority is repla-ced by local warlords or leaders who impose their own law, giving rise to a variety of criminal activities or radical ideologies. These in turn appeal to young people (who represent a large proportion of the population) with very limited education and hopes for a dignified way of earning a living. That way they can obtain lucrative earnings in a few months, far outstripping those obtained by the large majority of citizens by legal means over a long time. Under such circumstances of shortcomings and conflict, the expression referring to the excessive population growth in these countries as a “demo-graphic time bomb” is more than appropriate. It is neither the object nor the scope of this analysis to delve deeper into the con-flicts ravaging the region, as they have already been dealt with in detail by other stu-dies. Therefore, the two main hotspots of conflict in the Western Sahel are only briefly described below. The conflict in Mali The fall of Gaddafi’s regime resulted in the return of thousands of Tuareg soldiers to the north of Mali. The latter had received excellent military training and salvaged plenty of army material scattered across various parts of Libya12. In 2012, these sol-diers incited the rebellion of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA). Soon this rebellion was hijacked by various Islamist groups such as Ansar Edine (Defenders of the Islamic Faith), Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), whose leaders impose their own idea of Islamic faith, resulting in thousands of displaced persons13. The French-led operation Serval14 managed to push the rebels back to the north of 12 “¿Quién controla el armamento de Gadafi?” (2011, 25 de agosto). BBC Mundo. On http://www. bbc.com/mundo/noticias/2011/08/110825_libia_conflicto_gadafi_armas_arsenales_mostaza_g.shtml. Date of reference 16/03/18. 13 FAGÍN TABOADA, José Carlos. “El Sahel, amenazas de la nueva frontera”. Documento de opinión 15/2017. IEEE. Spanish Ministry of Defence, p. 6. (2017, February 13). On http://www.ieee. es/Galerias/fichero/docs_opinion/2017/DIEEEO15-2017_Sahel_FaginTaboada.pdf. Date of reference 16/03/18. 14 “Operación Serval”. On http://www.defense.gouv.fr/operations/operations/autres-operations/ operations-achevees/operation-serval-2013-2014. Date of reference 16/03/18.
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