Mali’s French connection

The 20 Indians, who were among the 170 people held hostage on Friday by terrorists at the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako, the capital of Mali in western Africa, have been evacuated safely — and that’s just lucky. Indians may well have been among the 25 fatalities. Then there could have been mounting pressure on New Delhi to be seen to be pro-active in international terrorist situations in which its citizens were caught up. The Bamako incident occurred exactly one week after the Paris massacre carried out by ISIS, but the two are unlikely to be linked. Nevertheless, France views the Mali situation seriously.

Mali was a French colony, and for the past three years has been overrun by Islamist outfits related to Al Qaeda. Indeed, Boko Haram, which plagues Nigeria and is thought to have killed more people than even ISIS last year, is thought to have cut its teeth in Mali. In 2013, France had sent military units to Mali to put down Islamists. The French seem to believe that they may get terrorists on their soil from this Francophone region, and have not hesitated to take part in military actions against Islamists in western and northern Africa, as they are now doing in northern Syria to hit ISIS. French diplomacy may be under strain, however, if it can’t persuade the US and Russia to reach a common view on Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, whom Washington wants ousted even if this means, in effect, hurting the military campaign against ISIS.

 

 

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