French Jets Strike Deep Inside Islamist-Held Mali

PhiGéo

Dans ce texte du New York Times la genèse de l'intervention française au Mali est présentée à partir de la formation de troupes d'élites de l'armée malienne par les Américains. Troupes d'élites qui se sont ralliées en bonne partie aux islamistes d'Ansar Dine et qui ont provoqué l'affaiblissement du pouvoir malien et, par voie de conséquence, sa chute. Le chef des putchistes, le capitaine Sanogo, est d'ailleurs lui aussi un bénéficiaire de la formation américaine.

"Over the last four years, the United States has spent between $520 million and $600 million in a sweeping effort to combat Islamist militancy in the region without fighting the kind of wars it has waged in the Middle East. The program stretched from Morocco to Nigeria, and American officials heralded the Malian military as an exemplary partner. American Special Forces trained its troops in marksmanship, border patrol, ambush drills and other counterterrorism skills.

But all that deliberate planning collapsed swiftly when heavily armed, battle-hardened Islamist fighters returned from combat in Libya. They teamed up with jihadists like Ansar Dine, routed poorly equipped Malian forces and demoralized them so thoroughly that it set off a mutiny against the government in the capital, Bamako. [...]  The virtual collapse of the Malian military, including units trained by United States Special Forces, followed by a coup led by an American-trained officer, Capt. Amadou Sanogo, astounded and embarrassed top American military commanders.

“I was sorely disappointed that a military with whom we had a training relationship participated in the military overthrow of an elected government,” Gen. Carter F. Ham, the head of the Africa Command, said in a speech at Brown University last month . “There is no way to characterize that other than wholly unacceptable.”

L'Amérique favorable a une intervention n'avait plus les moyens de le faire, occupée qu'elle est sur plusieurs fronts. C'est donc la France qui s'est engagée. Il faut dire que ce pays compte plusieurs ressortissants au Mali. L'issue risque toutefois d'être, selon les auteurs de l'article, une guerilla avec les islamistes :

"With thousands of French citizens in Mali, its former colony, France decided it could not wait any longer, striking the militants at the front line and deep within their haven.

Some experts said that the foreign troops might easily retake the large towns in northern Mali, but that Islamist fighters have forced children to fight for them, a deterrent for any invading force, and would likely use bloody insurgency tactics.

“They have been preparing these towns to be a death trap,” said Rudy Atallah, the former director of African counterterrorism policy for the Pentagon. “If an intervention force goes in there, the militants will turn it into an insurgency war.”"

French Jets Strike Deep Inside Islamist-Held Mali - NYTimes.com