MaliFrance gains international backing, faces complicated situation on the ground
France on Monday received a unanimous support from all members of the UN Security Council for the military action French forces have initiated last Friday against Islamists in Mali. On the ground, the situation is more complicated. The Islamists were driven out of one town south of the demarcation line between north and South Mali, but on Monday they managed to send another column south toward the town of Diabaly, on the western side of the Niger River, located 250 miles from the capital Bamako. French general admitted that the Islamists rebels are better-equipped and better-organized than initial estimates indicated. France faces a choice: send French ground troops to fight the Islamists in the north, or wait until late summer for a reconstructed Mali army and a West Africa multi-national force to conduct the ground war necessary to evict the Islamists from north Mali.
France on Monday received a unanimous support from all members of the UN Security Council for the military action French forces have initiated last Friday against Islamists in Mali.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed hope that the intervention would help restore “Mali’s constitutional order and territorial integrity.”
Monday’s emergency meeting of the Security Council convened at France’s request. After the meeting, the BBC reports that France’s UN ambassador Gerard Araud said his country had the “understanding and support” of the fourteen other Security Council members.
He added, though, that France also wanted the deployment of a West African force to happen “as quickly as possible.”
The reason for the desire to see the West African forces – in December, the Security Council authorized the formation of 3,300-strong force, to be led by Nigeria, to evict the Islamists from north Mali – come in sooner rather than later is that the situation on the ground is more complicated than initially thought.
France’s air attacks on Islamist strongholds in north Mali begun Friday, after a column of Islamist rebels moved south to occupy the town of Konna, located 300 miles from the Mali capital of Bamako. Mali has no operational military, and the president of Mali called French president Francois Hollande, urging French intervention to prevent an Islamist take-over of the entire country.
French fighter planes initially concentrated on attacking the Islamist forces moving south, killing many of them and forcing the rest to flee back north.
On Saturday and Sunday, French planes expanded their attacks deep inside north Mali, destroying arms and oil depots, training camps, and rebel troop concentrations.
The New York Times reports that on Monday, the Islamists regrouped and sent another column south toward the town of Diabaly, on the western side of the Niger River, forcing France to evacuate its citizens in the area and bringing the Islamists even closer to the capital — Konna is 300 miles from Bamako, while Diabaly is only 250 miles from the capital.
The Times notes that France, having entered the war quickly on Friday after an urgent request from Mali’s president, now finds itself facing what French generals describe as better-equipped and better-organized force of Islamist fighters – and for a while yet, France will be facing this force alone.
The United Kingdom is providing transport planes, and the United States has promised logistical and intelligence support, but both countries said they would not send ground troops, and
