A February 7 report published in the France daily Le Nouvel Observateur provides an extraordinary, blow by blow account of the lead-up to the France intervention in Mali. Columnist Vincent Jauvert and his colleague Sarah Halifa-Legrand spoke to officials in the French government and ministry of defence. The journalists describe the deep concern that arose in the halls of power in France following the military defeat of Mali’s army and government in early 2012 by the pro-autonomy movements of the Tuareg and other national minorities in the north of the country.
The defeat became a double fiasco when the U.S.-trained leader of Mali’s army, Captain Amadou Sanogo, led an overthrow of the country’s constitutional government one month later, on March 22. None other than General Carter Ham, commander of the U.S. Africa Command (Africom) recently acknowledged the fiasco when he admitted to an audience at Howard University in Washington on January 24 that there have been “shortcomings” in the years-long training program of the Mali army.
French-led plans for intervention accelerated following the election in France in May 2012. “When the outgoing government passed over the (foreign affairs) files, Mali was on the top of the pile,” one official at the ministry of defence told the journalists.
New French president François Hollande has strenuously denied any planned intention to intervene in Mali. But soon after his election, French special military forces were infiltrating the north of the country to map aerial bombing targets and conduct other preparations.
http://globe.blogs.nouvelobs.com/archive/2013/02/08/mali-histoire-secrete-d-une-guerre-surprise.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
