In addition to my earlier comments: the areas that are now in...

In addition to my earlier comments: the areas that are now in rebel "control" are sparsely populated, hard to defend and are pretty much all desert. Timbuktu is the biggest town in that region and it only has around 50,000 people. The most common building material is mud and there are no sealed roads. They are not hugely important areas for the country as a whole. They have always been controlled to an extent by the extremist. Westerners have never really been safe in these areas.