Coup d'etat in Mali

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Gosh...

Is the current "president" a dictator himself anyways ?

Mali has been blessed by pretty decent, democratic but imperfect and somewhat corrupt/useless leaders who are excellent by West African standards since 1992. It has a 'free' rating from Freedom House (2 political liberties, 3 civil liberties) and a 'flawed democracy' (6.36) index from the Economist (which is a ranking superior to that of Ghana, Ukraine, the Philippines or Venezuela).

I doubt anything good can come out of this.

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Well, Sudan is really just the historical name of what later came to be known as the Sahel - the zone of somewhat marginal agriculture between the desert and the forest, with closer links across the desert than across the forest, and Muslim as a result. The real divide-bridging monstrosities are Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, not Mali, Tchad and Niger.

I disagree. The divide in those countries is religious. Black Africans with fairly similar peasant cultures on each side. The divide between (generally) more light skinned nomadic/semi-normadic pastoralists and sedentary Blacks in the Sahel is more important. Race matters in Africa and the agriculturaist/pastoralist divide is always a source of confict.

That said Nigeria is obviousy a monstrosity. Should be divided into 3 countries - Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba, Igbo dominated respectively.

Cote-d'Ivoire's divide, at least is more than religious. The north/savanna is mainly reliant on herding, cotton and low-income crops; while the south/forest is driven by coffee and cacoa. And it isn't like there isn't any population mobility: something like 30% of Ivorians, especially in the north, immigrated from Burkina Faso. Imo, just because the divide might in good part be religious doesn't make a country any less monstrously divided or important.

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Why are the South Sudanese separatists called Freedom Fighters, when the Azawad separatists are called rebels and (without any proof) al-Qaida supporters?

Because the South Sudanese are Christian. The media also conveniently forgot to mention that South Sudan is an authoritarian single-party state while they got mass erections out of South Sudan's independence.