France in Pickle as Fundamentalism Approaches Mali

Rawaa Kassem - Tunisia

The Mali file had witnessed substantial development of events that regional and international forces did not take into account; Media, as well as witnesses, reported that fundamentalist groups approached the south towards the Mali capital, Bamako.
The capital had lived through a rough political patch after Malian President; Toumani Touré was overthrown and replaced by an interim civil president Dioncounda Traore after Western pressure.

Islamic fundamentalist groups, chiefly the Islamic northwestern Africa "al-Qaeda", regarded as the most belligerent of al-Qaeda branches in the Islamic World, and other similar groups has occupied strategic Kuna in Mali's historic lands.
This unforeseen extremist movement, proving not to be sufficed with the control of the Northern Azawad region, was considered by many spectators an evidence of the different agendas between Tuareg insurgents' - who demand their right of self-determination ultimately leading to the establishment of their own country in Azawad with Timbuktu as its capital - and between the Jihadist Takfiri groups that adopt al-Qaeda's mentality. This mentality emphasized that all Islamic countries are their own and must in turn launch the Sharia regime and overthrow all leaders to establish the so-called "Islamic Emirate".

Moreover, this escalation from pro-al-Qaeda groups reiterated that there is somewhat of a dispute between these groups and the Tuareg insurgents on the central governing in Bamako.

Nothing in the Tuareg's agenda displays that they wish to include South Mali to Azawad, in which they claim to be theirs, whereas South Mali is for Malians that are racially different from these Tuaregs.

Best Defense Solution

Other analyses considered the abrupt attack on the Southern Mali lands to be a tactic used by Jihadist fundamentalists to take Malians by surprise and protect their "infrastructure" in Azawad.
This resulted from concerns that African troops, backed by France - that declared war on these groups to reunite Mali by bonding the Tuareg's Azawad region to the central government in Bamako - would attack these fundamentalists.

Therefore, the best choice for the Jihadists, according to these analyses, was to take the Malian army by surprise. Jihadists were encouraged by the weak central regime in Bamako and the vulnerability of the Malian Army, whose morale was crushed after Tuareg's and Jihadists completely control over the Azawad region.
Several reports also underscored that a new cargo of Libyan weaponry were delivered to these fighters through Tunisia and Algeria, given Tripoli's inability to control its borders.

Fear

All these developments frightened France since the Mali state was on the verge of oblivion unless Paris intervened, where it received appointment from the UN for intervention.

France enjoys the support of world powers (chiefly the US) and in Europe through the German troops along with its French counterparts, attempting, along with the Malian Army, to counter the Islamic fundamentalists and prevent it from further advance, awaited the execution of a great military operation.

In the framework of guaranteeing its awaited military operation's success, France is negotiating with Tuaregs, such as the Liberation Army of Azawad (MNLA), to neutralize it to be able to solely fight the fundamentalists.

Paris presented Bilal Ag Acherif, the MNLA's leader, with promises of a self-governing in Azawad in a Federal framework after annihilating the fundamentalist groups, provided the Tuaregs pledged allegiance to them.
Awaiting this great military operation, that most northwestern African country such as Algeria opposes, Paris faces a tight pickle with these Takfiri groups that approach the Bamako capital.

Source: al-Ahed News, translated and edited by moqawama.org