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French troops arrive in Mali to stem rebel advance
Source
The French presence in Africa continues to grow. How can folks look at this as anything but neo-colonialism/neo-white man's burden ideology?
French troops have arrived in Mali amid a rapid escalation of international efforts to intervene in the country, where Islamist groups are continuing to clash with the army for control of the desert north.
The French president, François Hollande, announced on Friday night that French armed forces had come to the aid of Mali troops on the ground. He said the operation would last as long as necessary and the French parliament would sit to debate the move on Monday.
The French foreign office has advised ex-pats to leave Mali because of the security situation.
French media quoted Malian officials as saying European military were present on the ground, namely at Sévaré.
Colonel Abdrahmane Baby, a military operations adviser for the foreign affairs ministry, told Associated Press that French troops were in the country but gave no details about how many or what they were doing.
The announcement confirmed reports from residents in central Mali who said they had seen western military personnel arrive and that planes had landed there throughout the night.
Earlier, Hollande said France was "ready to stop the terrorists' advance if it continues". In a speech to the country's diplomatic corps, he said: "I have decided that France will respond, alongside our African partners, to the request from the Malian authorities. We will do it strictly within the framework of the United Nations security council resolution.
"[The rebels] have even tried to deal a fatal blow to the very existence of Mali. France, like its African partners and the entire international community, cannot accept that."
The tough-talking announcement by Hollande came after a plea for assistance from Mali's embattled president, Dioncounda Traoré, who has been under growing pressure in Mali to fight back against Islamist control of the north. The UN called for the swift deployment of an international force to Mali.
Al-Qaida-linked groups have controlled north Mali since the army deserted a campaign against Tuareg and Islamist rebels, followed by a military coup last March.
On Thursday rebels captured the town of Konna, less than 40 miles from the strategic city and army base of Mopti. The situation in Konna is described as complicated, with army personnel still in the town but rebels now in control.
"There are Islamists controlling Konna, but they are integrated into the population, it is very difficult for the army to fight them," said Boubakar Hamadoun, editor of the Bamako-based newspaper Mali Demain, who has reporters based in the north. "It is a very complicated situation."
Hamadoun cast doubt on reports that Douentza, one of the southernmost towns under Islamist control, had been recaptured by the Malian army this week. "There are some army personnel in Douentza in strategic positions, but the rebels are still very much in control of the town," he said.
The renewed fighting follows the disintegration of a ceasefire between one of the Islamist groups, Ansar Dine, and the government. It has sparked panic in Mopti and other towns south of the de facto border between government and Islamist control, and prompted concerns in the international community that the Islamist groups – who operate a drug trafficking and kidnap economy in northern Mali and other Sahelian countries – could capture more ground.
Hollande's announcement marked a radical departure from recent agreements that limited the role of French and other international forces to providing Mali's army with training and logistical support.
France, the former colonial power in Mali and other countries in the Sahel region, has hundreds of troops stationed across west and central Africa. This month it declined to provide a military intervention to another former colony, the Central African Republic, whose government is also under threat from rebel groups.
A UN security council resolution has been passed, paving the way for military intervention in Mali, but the UN's special envoy for the Sahel, Romano Prodi, said in November there would be no deployment until September.
I suppose if you're just trying to "fight the terrorists" then tout va bien?
From what I understand the only native force able to expel AQIM(Al-Qaeda in the Magrehb) and it's local allies and affliates are the secular Azawadi Nationalists. They've said they would only be willing to go after them if the global community recognized their state of Azawad in northern Mali which the international community refuses to do because of the resources in that area(uranium, natural gas, gold, etc). The sick thing is that the president of Mali was in bed with AQIM all the time and let them run around proliferating.
Hahahahahaha. That's a very funny way of saying that the local population is mostly anti-government Islamists.
France still considers a great many African nations to be its colonies.
Any real change implies the breakup of the world as one has always known it, the loss of all that gave one an identity, the end of safety. And at such a moment, unable to see and not daring to imagine what the future will now bring forth, one clings to what one knew, or dreamed that one possessed. Yet, it is only when a man is able, without bitterness or self-pity, to surrender a dream he has long possessed that he is set free - he has set himself free - for higher dreams, for greater privileges.”
-James Baldwin
"We change ideas like neckties."
- E.M. Cioran
Oh, and yeah, I read on a French site that it's not just France. Nigeria and Senegal are also supposedly taking part in this. Or maybe it was Niger; Niger actually borders Mali. But I think the governments of Niger and Mali don't really like each other. I don't know, I'm really bad at African politics.
Ahh taking back control of our rightful soil, I see. It's good to see that our beautiful nation has not been totally overran by Muslims yet. Vive la France! [/sarcasm]
Woah there, give a warning if you're going to be so edgy.
Who oh who will we support in this battle between religious fundamentalists and French imperialists? We must pick a side!
"Imperialist hands off [insert country here]!"
"Win, lose or draw...long as you squabble and you get down, that's gangsta."
in b4 AQIM is touted as anti-imperialist liberating forceWho oh who will we support in this battle between religious fundamentalists and French imperialists? We must pick a side!
"Imperialist hands off [insert country here]!"
"Face the world like a roaring blaze, before all the tears begin to turn silent. Burn down everything that stands in our way. Bang the drum."
you guys do know that the islamists have been on a handchopping, women stoning and Sufi annihilating killing spree right? I'd take imperiast Frenchie's over that anyday. (the tuareg nationalists fucked up by looting early on, capitulating to Ansar Dine and than getting their ass handed to them. They don't have the resources or support to hold down the north)
sometimes people miss the point so widely when responding to posts it actually confuses me.
Until now, the left has only managed capital in various ways; the point, however, is to destroy it.
He was mocking the anti-imperialist types that wet their pants over every group that takes up the defensive against western military operations.
So I guess we can add +1 in support of the former colonial master of Mali.
Seriously though why have France decided to step up their presence?
More imperial intervention, more "leftist" support.
Why not, the "socialist" Hollande will surely liberate women, or something.
To defend their client junta. The islamists have recently become stronger and captured a major town yesterday or the day before.So I guess we can add +1 in support of the former colonial master of Mali.
Seriously though why have France decided to step up their presence?
French neocolonialism is usually overshadowed by American or even Chinese neocolonialism, but it's still a major force of reaction in Western Africa.
Our stance should be to support the military defeat of France and her proxies. Period.
Replace Sufi with Alawite and Christian and you have Syria. But we all know revleft's stance on that.
Actually if we actually examine this conflict, we would discover (as many news papers have been discussing) how this conflict was fueled by NATO intervention in Libya.Who oh who will we support in this battle between religious fundamentalists and French imperialists? We must pick a side!
"Imperialist hands off [insert country here]!"
This is what I posted at PoFo:
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If we are really in a situation of "well which would be 'less bad' for Mali?" then we're already buying into the French narrative that "We have to do something to alleviate the problem!"
This is a very ahistorical take on the contemporary situation to pretend that the history of French colonialism in a place like Mali is just some historical past that bears no weight on this....
Another thing that's being strangely left out of the narrative by folks who want to paint it as "Well the Islamists are terrible so the West has to fight them" with the lesser evils logic is quite significant. As The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Independent all point out: a major source of this conflict is the instability created by Western intervention in Libya.
This fact alone makes the point of "well the Islamists are bad so we should support France" an absurd point that requires an erasing of even recent history, let alone ignoring the colonial history.
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So to be silent on the question of French/Western imperialism in this case would be quite a strange position for a Leftist to take in my opinion.
Great why don't you move to a french colony and see how great it is then.
For student organizing in california, join this group!
http://www.revleft.com/vb/group.php?groupid=1036
http://socialistorganizer.org/
"[I]t’s hard to keep potent historical truths bottled up forever. New data repositories are uncovered. New, less ideological, generations of historians grow up. In the late 1980s and before, Ann Druyan and I would routinely smuggle copies of Trotsky’s History of the Russian Revolution into the USSR—so our colleagues could know a little about their own political beginnings.”
--Carl Sagan
President Francois Hollande says more French troops are to be deployed in Mali to support the 750 in the country countering an Islamist insurgency.
Mr Hollande, visiting the United Arab Emirates, said new air strikes overnight had "achieved their goal".
West African military chiefs will meet in Mali on Tuesday to discuss how an alliance with the French will work.
France began its intervention on Friday with the aim of halting the Islamists' advance south towards the capital.
Late on Monday, the UN Security Council unanimously backed the intervention.
(BBC News)
I saw yesterday on the news that despite the french, the rebels took another city. Does anyone have good sources?
Apenas um rapaz latino americano apoiado por mais de 50 mil manos
