They're gonna invade Mali...

format_quote Originally Posted by Junon

The invasion has almost nothing to do with “Islamism”, and almost everything to do with the acquisition of resources, notably minerals, and an accelerating rivalry with China.

We already talked about the resource issue earlier in this thread - it just doesn't stack up, the financials don't make sense even if you want to assume the worst about the governments. For instance there is this from the Think Africa Press website:

'What are France's objectives in intervening in northern Mali? Who exactly are they fighting?

It is worth beginning by dismissing some theories about France’s motivations for intervening which are erroneous.Firstly, it is not neo-colonialism. While France has a sorry record of neo-colonialism in its former colonies, this intervention is not an example of it. Mali is an outlier in French post-colonialism and French economic interests in Mali are relatively limited.

Secondly, conspiracy theories about riches under the Sahara are misguided. Northern Mali has no proven oil or uranium deposits, and it is not clear that if any were discovered, France would recoup the costs of the intervention in preferential agreements. It is possible that worries of a spill-over into Niger – from which France imports 7% of its domestic energy supplies in the form of uranium – was a factor in French decision-making. But the intervention has put those assets more not less at risk.

Thirdly, references to the “strategic importance” of Mali should be quickly dismissed. Mali has little strategic importance to any outside power in terms of economic or other resources. Indeed, prior to the events of the last year, Mali was truly one of the world’s strategic backwaters.

In that case, what reasons did inform France’s decision? The strategic interest that France sees, whether justified or not, is in removing, or halting the spread of, Islamist militants in the country and region. I am minded to take French strategic thinking pretty much at face value here, although I personally think the threat of Islamic militancy to both the region and outside the region is overblown.

One false narrative which has been accepted, however, is that the events in northern Mali are blowback from NATO’s 2011 intervention in Libya. This narrative, whilst not without elements of truth, is overstated, overpowering so much other analysis.

I have two main problems with it. Firstly, it completely ignores local dynamics alongside messy and unclear facts. Instead, it substitutes a kind of theory of cosmic payback for Western foreign policy. This places the effects of Western policy far above the moods and motivations of Malians. Whilst this easy assumption may have worked with respect to the War on Terror in other Muslim majority countries, it fails to properly face facts in Mali.

Secondly, the theory, at least in its common, most exaggerated form, fails at the basic level of common sense. Niger, which actually borders Libya, unlike Mali, would be a far more likely candidate to suffer blowback from Libya. Fighters in the Libyan war crossed the border between the two. Niger has a large Tuareg population. There is a history of trans-border criminal and Islamic militant networks just like in Mali. And there are actually natural resources there (uranium and oil). However, Niger remains stable whilst Mali is in crisis. A significantly weaker version of blowback theory could explain this, but the usual blithe assumptions around the necessary link between Mali and Libya cannot.'

http://thinkafricapress.com/mali/editors-q-whats-deal-mali

On a lighter note, congratulations to Mali for reaching the semi finals of the African Football Cup of Nations, despite everything that has happened back home.

the retreat of the rebel forces where tactical ,now they go resorting to geurilla war which has also paid the price for the troops in iraq and afghanistan. Geurilla warfare is the most effective warfare. And can be very heavy for the french troops which mostly consists of 18 young old teenagers who like to shoot everyone lol most likely from call of duty..

This is gonna be long and it will destabilize the region.

Suicide bomber blows himself up near Mali soldiers, first attack of its kind

A suicide bomber has blown himself up near Malian security troops in the central town of Gao, reports AFP. It’s the first suicide bombing on Malian troops since beginning their campaign with the French to wrest Mali’s north from Islamist militants.
The suicide bomber approached a group of Malian troops on a motorbike before detonating his explosives and injuring one soldier, reported AFP, citing military sources.
The suicide bomber "approached us on a motorbike, he was a Tamashek (Tuareg), and as he came closer he set off his belt," said First Sergeant Mamadou Keita to AFP.
The bombing marks the first instance of militants employing suicide attacks as a tactic since the French-led campaign against Mali’s Islamists was launched three weeks ago.
The attack follows a threat by two Islamist extremist groups, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO),warning they had created a new “combat zone” and were organizing attacks on military convoys and placing landmines.
Meanwhile, in Mali’s southern capital Bamako shooting was reported at a paratrooper base, sources told Reuters.
The campaign to take back the North of Mali from the Islamist militants is now in its third week. Currently there are around 4,000 French troops deployed in the country aiding Malian security forces.
French and Chadian forces have made progress in their push towards Mail’s north, advancing into the northeastern mountain range where militants are thought to be holding seven French hostages.
The French-led assault has driven many of Mali’s rebels into the mountainous, amid fears they will adopt guerrilla-style tactics in the area.
“All these Jihadis and armed groups and terrorist elements – seemingly they have fled. Our concern is that they may come back,”
said UN leader Ban Ki-moon in New York. He echoed concerns over a possible guerrilla warfare backlash in Mali.

http://rt.com/news/suicide-bomber-mali-soldiers-718/

format_quote Originally Posted by Independent

Let me get this straight. You're accusing the government of Mali of destabilising the region, by seeking to exert jurisdiction over its own sovereign territory?

The region is already on fire, libya on the right if already considering a open weapon bazaar. Yes, the government is too blame also, the tuaregs wanted independence because they faced discimination.

Military success in Mali raises fear of sectarian revenge attacks


As French, Malian and troops from other African countries enter the key northern Malian towns of Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal, reports are emerging of revenge attacks against the Islamists and some of the local Tuareg and Arab population.
As Malian and French forces closed in and retook Gao last weekend virtually unopposed, residents have been hunting down and beating up suspected Islamist extremists who did not have time to flee into the desert. Malian troops then bundled the suspected terrorists into a truck.
Members of a youth militia called the Gao Patrolmen, went house to house hunting for suspected Islamists.
“They have gone into homes to hide, so we’ve been rounding them up to hand them to the military,” Abdul Karim Samba, a spokesman for the group told AP.
For almost a year al-Qaida linked extremists have controlled the town, where they swiftly introduced Sharia law, banning music and carrying out public executions and amputations.
Troops from Chad, one of the African nations which has sent troops to help the Malian government and the French, were patrolling the streets, backed up by French soldiers overnight.
Reports from Timbuktu say that residents have also attacked property there owned by Arab and Tuareg traders who are suspected of collaborating with the Islamic rebels.
There were also reports Tuesday of widespread looting of shops in Timbuktu, which belonged to Arabs, with the Malian army unable to control the anger of many residents towards the Islamists. Many black African locals connect Arabs, who have lived in the town for hundreds of years – to the extreme Islamists because of their appearance and religion.

Gonzalo Wancha, a freelance journalist in Mali, who was travelling north from Timbuktu with French and Malian soldiers, told RT that he saw evidence of war crimes committed against the local population. He said that residents of the town of Sevare had been murdered by Malian soldiers and then thrown into a well, used by locals for drinking water. He also said that there has been evidence of extra judicial killings. Many local Tuaregs and Arabs are being persecuted for allegedly collaborating with al-Qaeda, he added.
Whilst it is too early to say exactly what has happened in Mali, it is inevitable that there will be civilian casualties in such a campaign in a country as poor as Mali where the rule of law has never been strictly enforced, Lode Vanoost, an international consultant and former deputy speaker of the Belgian parliament told RT.
“First of all the Malian army does hold a grudge against the people who ousted them from the northern part of the country and secondly these soldiers are very low paid with very little armaments, they are not really a regular army in that sense. Mali is a very destitute country; it’s always the same tragedy. This country needs our support yes, this country needs our help but why is it this help always comes in the form of military intervention?” He said.

Last night French forces also flew into the northern desert town of Kidal, one of the last strongholds for the Islamists.
“The French arrived at 9:30 pm [Tuesday] aboard four planes. Afterwards they took the airport and then entered the town and there was no combat,” Haminy Maiga, the interim president of the Kidal region told AP.

The Tuareg are Berbers who have lived a nomadic life across the Sahel and Sahara regions of north and west Africa for hundreds of years and make up 11% of the population of northern Mali.
They populate the desert and semi desert areas of northern Mali and have always viewed themselves as different from the black Africans who live in the South and west of the country.
Tuareg rebels have been waging an on-off secessionist war for decades against the Mali government in the capital Bamuko, situated in the south east of the country.
But the Tuareg movement is split into different factions. The secular Tuareg nationalist militia (MNLA) has been fighting for an independent northern republic and has recently said that its supports the French military intervention.
But Another group, the IslamistAnsar Dine, which includes many Tuareg fighters, which spearheaded last year’s successful attempt to take the north of Mali, has close links to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). AQIM is a terrorist organization, which aims to overthrow the Algerian government and create an Islamist state.

http://rt.com/news/mali-conflict-islamists-revenge-106/

And now the malian government which isnt even being legimate by the malian people is asking FOREIGNERS to come and help them in this fight or genocide. This malian government is corrupt as hell and gets painted by the west as a legimate government. However the malian people know better.

Yes the french are destabilizing the region, you know this is a big blowback thanks to NATO invasion led by france in libya.
good is that dictators are gonne be overthrown, bad is that it will lead to destabilization.