Trying To Keep The Peace In Mali

France’s Next Move: With Mali’s Islamists On The Run, Time To Talk To The Tuaregs -- Time

The surprisingly rapid advance of France’s military offensive in Mali has freed all the major towns that had been under Islamist control, and driven al-Qaeda-linked militias back into the desert and mountainous regions in the north. Indeed, France’s intervention to halt extremist militias threatening to storm the entire country has been so successful that French President François Hollande announced a Feb. 2 visit to Mali’s capital Bamako—scarcely three weeks after the anti-Islamist operation began Jan. 11.

When Hollande huddles with Mali’s interim president Dioncounda Traoré he is expected to discuss French plans to let troops from neighboring African states take over policing operations of the country with a re-constituted and –trained Malian army, as well as related security, development, and humanitarian concerns. But within that conversation, Hollande is also likely to push a particularly prickly issue with Bamako: reaching out to ethnic Tuareg rebels who joined forces with jihadi militias to declare the independence of northern Mali last year.

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My Comment: This is not going to be an easy sale .... tribalism and ethnic conflict has been the history for this region. And even though the French have the soldiers and weapons .... everyone knows that they will be gone very soon. my prediction .... once the French are gone everything will go back to what it was before.

Update: Mali’s neighbors take steps to keep al Qaida militants from escaping -- McClatchy News