Sadly, the lull proved but brief. France is back in the bloody game of military adventurism in Africa. France had long given up on intervention in its former African colonies in Africa. This week, however, Paris intervened militarily in Mali. The immediate consequence of this is that French President François Hollande, a Socialist, has embarked on a credible firewall protecting its former colonies from militant Islamist groups. But staving off contagion is not enough. Resource-rich Mali, a landlocked predominantly Muslim nation strategically located in the centre of West Africa's Sahel region, is vital to French interests. If economic arguments did not persuade Paris to intervene, then the politics did. A French soldier coincidentally was killed in Somalia by the Islamist militia known as Shabab, or Youth. This is the second French national to be executed by the group. And, the Nigerian authorities captured and detained Mohamed Zangina, a leader of Boko Haram, a Nigerian-based anti-Western militant Islamist group. Several such groups have pledged retaliation across Africa and in France itself. With France in a funk in Africa, the prospects for French militarism in Africa look grim. Yet, France is the only country that was ready to intervene in Mali. All of Mali's neighbours were pussyfooting on the matter. The United States, too, was not eager to intervene militarily in a region regarded as a French fiefdom. Officially, Malian President Dioncounda Traore asked the French for help even as Islamist militias that control the north of Mali moved southwards towards the capital Bamako. The Islamist forces were caught unawares as the French troops halted their advance on the capital. The Economic Community of West Africa, a 16-nation group that includes Mali and Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, tacitly approved of the French intervention. “Mali's saviour is François Hollande,” trumpeted the Malian daily Le Republicain. Mali's northern neighbour oil-rich Algeria, the most important regional player, was more muted about developments in Mali. The official attitude in Algiers was ambivalent. “By closing its border with Mali and opening its air space to French war planes, Algiers is openly entering the conflict,” Algerian pundit Hacen Ouali noted in the Algerian daily Al-Watan. Mali is the subject of a tussle. To many Africans French interventionism smacks of neocolonialism and carries nasty anti-Muslim overtones. Yet, the Malian and most of the West African countries are supportive of French military intervention. In between those two poles, there is evidence suggesting a close link between the rise of militant Islam in the Saharan and Sahelian regions of Africa and grievances concerning being ill-served by the neocolonial status quo. Islamist militancy has evolved across Africa south of the Sahara, but it does not stir the grassroots as it does in North Africa. The political establishments of African countries south of the Sahara and the economic elite are virulently anti-militant Islam, even in predominantly Muslim nations. The French have traditionally demonstrated a genius for stoking African resentments. There was indignation in Francophone Africa about French intervention in the Great Lakes region in the past two decades. Yet, the situation in Mali is different because most African states actually welcomed French intervention. Paris called for a United Nations Security Council meeting convened on Monday. However, the Islamist militias are fighting back fiercelessly. The Islamist militias' counter-attack on the strategically located town of Diabaly, home to a key Malian army military base was a serious setback for the French and official Malian army. Nevertheless, the French have superior air force and are prepared to stay in Mali for as long as it takes to quell the militant Islamist rebellion. The Malian Islamist militias are an offshoot of the now defunct Algerian Islamist group, the GSPC. Moreover, the proliferation of weapons in the Saharan wastes intensified with the assassination of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The Malian rebellion started in northern Mali, in territories adjacent to Libya and Algeria. Many Malians were tempted to wave goodbye to the north of the country inhabited by ethnic Tuareg and Arabs. However, Mali's neighbours are not interested in seeing the break-up of the country. French Mirage and Rafale warplanes were dispatched to Mali where some 500 French troops are stationed. The newest twist in this epic of French involvement in Africa is that Nigeria, Togo and Senegal are dispatching troops to Mali. Bourkina Faso has already sent troops and France is seeking logistical support from the US and several European nations. Britain has provided two cargo planes. In the short term the problem of Islamist militancy in Mali cannot be resolved, it has to be endured. The Al-Qaeda-affiliated Movement for Oneness and Jihad, that is spearheading Mali's militant Islamist insurgency, has already indicated that Paris will pay dearly for its intervention. (see pp.24-25)
