French military aircraft on Thursday delivered "pinpoint strikes on the positions of militants of radical groups" in the north-east of Mali, near the border with Niger.
According to sources in the armed forces of the African republic, the French Air Force "successfully attacked and destroyed the bases of extremists" in the village of Ansongo, located 80 km south of the large city of Gao. Thanks to the strikes, "damage was caused to the enemy" both in Ansongo itself and in the neighboring village of Seina-Sonrai, the security forces specified, ITAR-TASS reports.
The situation in areas close to Niger in northeastern Mali, where militants are hiding, is of concern to official Bamako. It is expected that in the near future part of the military personnel of the member states of the Economic Community of West Africa will be deployed in this zone.
As part of the African International Mission in Support of Mali, they will support the Malian army in the fight against extremists who have seized the northern regions.
Legendary, ancient city Mali and all of Africa Timbuktu / 900 km north of the capital Bamako /, which was captured last year by rebel groups of Tuareg rebels and Islamic radicals, has been deprived of access to drinking water and electricity for the third day.
According to representatives of the authorities of the African Republic, a city that has been repeatedly bombed by the French Air Force in recent years, left both the militants and part of the civilian population. According to eyewitnesses, Islamists provided residents with water and electricity, supplying fuel for generators. "However, with their departure, Timbuktu lost both, turning into a" ghost town ", they say.
Earlier there were reports that the radicals interrupted Timbuktu's telephone communication with the outside world in order to prevent the transmission of the information of interest to the Malian army.
According to representatives of the power structures of Mali, a number of influential militant field commanders have moved to the Kidal region, known for its harsh climate.
The Azzawad Islamic Movement (IDA), a splinter group from Ansar al-Din (Defenders of Religion), is ready for peace talks. It is reported by Agence France-Presse with reference to the received communiqué of the organization.
"The IDA officially declares that it is separating itself from any terrorist groups, condemns and rejects any form of extremism and terrorism, and is committed to combating them," the statement said. “Consisting exclusively of indigenous people /Mali/, the IDA once again declares its independence and readiness to move towards a peaceful solution to the crisis in Mali.”
Moscow and Paris are "ready for constructive work in the UN Security Council on the problem of Mali." This was stated in the Russian Foreign Ministry following a meeting between Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov and French Ambassador to Moscow Jean de Gliniasty.
"A thorough exchange of views took place on the development of the situation in the Sahara-Sahel region with an emphasis on the crisis in Mali and the conduct of the Serval operation by France to counter the terrorist threat in northern Mali," the diplomatic agency noted. "The parties expressed their readiness for constructive work in the UN Security Council on Malian issues".
The events in Mali are the consequences of a coup in Libya and the overthrow of its leader Muammar Gaddafi, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton admitted.
"Unfortunately, the instability was caused by a military coup carried out by the military and the Tuareg, who for years were used by Gaddafi as mercenaries. After his overthrow, they returned to Libya with huge stockpiles of weapons and ammunition. At the same time, Al-Qaeda organized a camp in northern Mali," - said Clinton, speaking in the Senate, quoted by RIA Novosti.
According to her, the United States and allies are trying to regain control over the situation in northern Mali, but so far they have not been able to fully control the region, stop terrorist attacks and the spread of weapons outside the country, including to Algeria.
"There is no doubt that the terrorists in Algeria also used weapons from Libya. There is no doubt that the militants in Mali use weapons from Libya," Clinton said.
The situation in Mali is multi-layered. There are many interests involved here. At first glance, a civil war began in 2012, to which foreign forces are now joining: France, first of all, neighboring African countries, and in the background - the USA, Great Britain and Germany.
Let's try to figure out who needs it?
After all, for example, the conflict around Mali, hidden from the eye, is that the interests of France and the United States clashed here head-on.
And this is only one of the sides of the tragedy that has begun, during which people will die, and terrorism will begin to spread rapidly throughout the region, and the war in the sands of the Sahara will cost Paris a pretty penny. The citizens of France may not particularly like the latter, and then, following the "victor of the Jamahiriya" Sarkozy, "the fighter against Islamists in Mali" Hollande will also go into political oblivion.
So let's look into this, at first glance, a local, but far-reaching conflict.
We analyzed the prehistory of the Malian events, their roots and causes in detail in the article "Karardak in the Sahel". Therefore, we would like to draw the attention of respected readers who are interested in the origins of events to this material.
In this regard, now we will not go into details of what happened a year or more ago (below, we will simply remind you of this with a dotted line), but we will focus on today's events. Moreover, in just a few days so much information has accumulated (and there is also something from the archive) that the story will not be short.
Intervention scheduled
On October 13, 2012, the UN Security Council gave African countries 45 days to prepare a military operation in the northern regions of Mali, captured by Islamists and Tuareg separatists. France submitted a draft resolution on military intervention in Mali in September 2012.
French President Francois Hollande, who was visiting Senegal, then said: “What is happening in recent months in Mali, where terrorists have dug in, is no longer just a threat to West Africa, it is even more serious. This is not just aggression against a sovereign country - this is a security issue throughout the African continent and Europe.
What kind of terrorists dug in Mali was already known to the whole world - the north of the country was seized by militants of an extremist alliance, which includes the Islamist groups Ansar ad-Din (Defenders of Religion) and Al-Qaeda in the countries of the Islamic Maghreb, and See also Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa. Such a sweet company.
In addition to these guys, detachments of local residents appeared in the north of Mali - the Tuareg, who live in the vast expanses of the Sahara for centuries, but do not have their own state education. And immediately after the end of the war in Libya, started by French President Sarkozy, the Malian Tuareg who were in the service of Colonel Gaddafi returned home and revolted. The goal is to create their own state called Azavat, which would occupy two thirds of the Malian territory. The Islamists entered into an alliance with the Tuareg, but then they quarreled to such an extent that they began to kill each other.
It was this alliance that at the beginning of 2012 became the headache with which France came to the Security Council. The government of Mali itself suffered from other parts of the body, since on the same days a military coup took place in the capital of Bamako, and the president and his team were simply expelled by local soldiers under the command of a certain junior officer who, by the way, received a military education in the United States.
So Paris even got a headache "in the square": its former colony, and now the zone of influence - Mali, got out of control both in the capital and on the periphery. Yes, and split in two ...
Since ancient colonial times, the mother country has always had the same answer to such challenges - an iron fist!
It was during the Soviet Union that Africa took the path of independent development with the active assistance of Moscow, and now the dashing customs of neo-colonialism are returning to the Black Continent at the speed of a forest fire that captures more and more new territories - Libya, Syria, Côte d'Ivoire, Sudan ...
After the Year of Africa (1960), only half a century has passed, and here again: "Barin!" Tikhon muttered passionately. "From Paris!" (I. Ilf and E. Petrov. "12 chairs").
... So, in October 2012, "to liberate northern Mali from Islamic extremists," the UN Security Council authorized the deployment of an African peacekeeping contingent in the country under the auspices of the countries of ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African Nations). The adopted resolution emphasized that the peacekeeping contingent would operate "observing the sovereignty, territorial integrity and unity of Mali."
ECOWAS members (15 West African states) were ready to send about 3,000 soldiers to Mali. The tasks of the contingent should include "assisting the army of Mali in the return of control over the northern regions of the country", "protecting the population" and "ensuring the security of humanitarian supplies."
No military action by ECOWAS forces is mentioned. And no word was said about the bombing of French aviation ...
But at the end of November, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned about the inexpediency of financing the operation from the UN budget (who advised him to do this?), which caused sharp discontent in a number of African countries. Trading has begun...
In December, the Security Council once again returned to this issue and on the 20th, on Christmas Eve, adopted a new decision - resolution 2085. It unanimously approved the entry of African troops into northern Mali. The resolution, again prepared by France, authorized "any measures that will help the government of an African country to liberate its northern part from the rebels." There was no talk of a peacekeeping operation...
The UN Security Council stressed that, first of all, "it is necessary to achieve progress in the political settlement", "to ensure the freedom of expression of the will of citizens" and "to train the troops of the African Union."
The military operation in northern Mali was scheduled for no earlier than September 2013. Let's take a look at this date!
But in January, the situation suddenly escalated sharply - the Islamists launched a large-scale offensive in the south of the country. While ECOWAS and Ban Ki-moon were counting money, France rushed into battle.
The very fact of the sudden offensive of the Islamists raises questions - why did the aggravation come a few days after the decision of the UN Security Council, which practically opened the way to foreign intervention in Mali? Who is in a hurry - the Islamists or ... Paris? And why did this race start?
After all, from the very first days of the military operation of the French Foreign Legion, an “awl” came out that “you can’t hide in a bag” - the operation was not prepared, intelligence was insufficient, the French faced fierce resistance from well-armed and trained detachments. Instead of the first 400 soldiers, France is already ready to increase its contingent to 2000 people!
Something doesn't add up...
Intervention started
January 12 France informed UN Security Council on the start of a military operation in Mali.
Note, the war began even before the formal permission of the Security Council which was adopted retrospectively. At first, France only "informed". Well it, international law, some use ...
The letter, sent by France's permanent representative to the UNO, Gerard Haro, to the Security Council on January 11 calls for speeding up the implementation of the resolution authorizing the deployment of an international military contingent in Mali. "This operation, which is carried out in accordance with international law (?!), will last as long as it takes."
Yes, the "international" contingent, but not the "national French". Or is it the same thing?
By God, as in KVN:
"We start KVN - for what, for what?
So as not to be left aside - no one, no one…"
Apparently, Paris decided to start a war BEFORE the decision of the UN Security Council, and even so that "no one is left behind."
"The development of the situation (in Mali) requires the accelerated implementation of resolution 2085 (of 20 December)," the French letter emphasizes. In general, they put everyone before the fact. And when, on January 14, the UN Security Council held an emergency meeting specifically on the issue of Mali and allowed France military operations, the fighting there had been going on for the third day ...
Here’s what didn’t happen with regard to Syria, but what happened in relation to Mali…
Yes, it was on Friday, January 11, that French President Francois Hollande announced the start of his country's participation in the military operation in Mali.
“Note that he was in such a hurry that he did not bother to comply with the internal laws of France. According to the French Constitution, the start of hostilities outside France is possible only with the approval of the country's parliament. Parliament was supposed to consider this issue on Monday, January 14, and on Friday, On the 11th the French army was already fighting!" says Alexander Rogers.
The French air force has launched a strike against Islamist militants in Mali, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said that day. "To answer your question whether the operation was carried out from the air; my answer is yes," Fabius said at a press conference on January 11.
And where is the French Constitution after that, along with the UN Charter?
Interim President of Mali Dionkunda Traore addressed the nation on the same Friday, declared a state of emergency and announced a general mobilization.
By the way, Dionkunda Traore was sworn in on April 12, 2012 after a military coup, as the "interim president of Mali", without any elections! Very "democratic". So "democratic" that on May 21, thousands of unarmed citizens of Mali seized the presidential palace, demanding his resignation. And here is such a "democratic" president, whom nobody chose, and which the Malians themselves do not want, suddenly (or not all of a sudden?) calls for help from the Foreign Legion.
ECOWAS is late - Ban Ki-moon does not give money - but makes statements. The West African Economic Community is beginning to immediately deploy a military contingent of 3,300 soldiers to Mali to fight the Islamists who have seized the north, said Cote d'Ivoire President Alassane Ouattara, who is the chairman of ECOWAS. Soldiers from Nigeria and Senegal are already providing support to Malian government forces.
Here are the first estimates of the size of the coalition that is gathering forces against the Islamists:
Approximately 7,300 soldiers of the Malian government army,
About 2000 gendarmes,
3300 ECOWAS soldiers,
3,000 African Union soldiers (possibly)
3,000 UN soldiers (still in potential),
Up to 2500 French soldiers + aviation.
Is it enough? Almost 100 thousand were collected in Afghanistan, and where is the result?
Here is what the French press reported.
The French air force used Mirage 2000D and Rafale combat aircraft to strike anti-government forces in Mali as part of Operation Serval (named after the "African bush cat"), "carried out to protect the civilian population of the country."
Naturally! What else is bombing for? To overthrow Milosevic, Saddam and Gaddafi? Yes, by no means ... Only "to protect the civilian population", only for the sake of "establishing democracy."
Again, as Vladimir Putin once put it, "rocket and bomb democracy"?
In this regard, it is interesting to listen to US Assistant Secretary of State for African States Johnny Carson, who said that the "first challenge" the US considers is "restoring democratic governance" in Mali.
Under this talk of a "noble cause" on January 11, "at the request of the government of Mali" (but even before receiving UN sanctions!) French Gazelles helicopters deployed in the country's capital Bamako from the 4th Special Helicopter Regiment hit four transport vehicles of militants near the city of Kona . During the battle, one of the French pilots was mortally wounded.
Then, four French Mirage 2000D fighters from a base in neighboring Chad (this is already an intervention from abroad) on the night of January 11-12 attacked militants in northern Mali.
And then France sends 200 troops to Mali on transport planes. They flew over Algeria, which allowed the French Air Force to use its airspace, but quickly closed the border with Mali. Neighboring Mauritania deployed its troops along the border with Mali ...
Speaking at a press conference on January 12, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said: "We will carry out hostilities for as long as necessary. Our commitment to fighting terrorism is known(known-known - this "commitment" today in the West justifies any military operation anywhere in the world), and France will do everything possible to help the Malians in their fight against the jihadist groups that have launched an offensive in recent days."
Again. For almost a year, the Islamists have controlled the north of Mali and have been attacking the southern part from there. YEAR. But... For some reason, only now France has attended to help the Malians "in their fight against jihadist groups."
"Where have you been before?" (with)
First battles, first losses. including informational
Map infoturism.ro
So, the situation escalated in early January after intense skirmishes began between the forces of the government army and militants near the city of Mopti. According to the military, it was on the capture of this city, where the airport is located, that the militants of the Islamist alliance concentrated their efforts, which, we recall, includes the groups Ansar ad-Din (Defenders of Religion), Al-Qaeda in the countries of the Islamic Maghreb. , and "Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa". To solve this problem, the radicals drew forces from the cities they controlled Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu.
Then intervention. Air strikes, and now militants from the "Movement for Monotheism and Jihad in West Africa" leave the city of Gao, where they had rear bases, training camps and warehouses.
"There is smoke over their bases. There is not a single Islamist left in the city. Everyone has fled," a local teacher said. "The French have done a good job. Now the government army should enter the city so that the militants don't come back," said an official from Gao.
On other fronts, things didn't start out so easy...
Soldiers from France and Germany have taken up positions in the central region of Mali, while local Islamist militants are developing an offensive in the north of the country, the Figaro newspaper reported January 11.
After the first days of the bombing, Paris admitted that the enemy was better armed than initially thought - the militants even managed to shoot down a helicopter.
Orientalist-Arabist Alexander Ignatenko noted: “The problem is that almost 16 thousand MANPADS - Strela, Strela-2, etc. - disappeared from the warehouses of the late Colonel Gaddafi. Most likely, they are now in Mali "So the French will not be able to bomb with impunity. No, they can easily be beaten down (which has already begun - S.F.) ... A preemptive strike by the Islamists against the French and all foreigners who poke their noses into Mali is not ruled out. They will turn Mali into a second Afghanistan".
And what will they turn Paris into?
One of the groups operating in Mali, the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, threatens to carry out terrorist attacks in France in response to a military operation by French troops in the country, Agence France-Presse reports. "France has attacked Islam. We will strike at the heart of France," AFP spokesman Abu Dardar said by telephone.
In response, the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the French National Assembly, Elisabeth Guigou, said France was taking these threats seriously. In an interview with BFM TV, she noted that the authorities had decided two days earlier to raise the "alert level" as part of France's permanent plan to counter terrorism.
And Hollande went even further: "You ask what we intend to do with the terrorists if we find them? We will destroy them. We will imprison them so that they cannot harm our future," the Euronews television channel quotes the President of France.
This statement raised questions from our bloggers. One of them remarked: “So, if there are terrorists, they must be destroyed. This is the verdict of Mr. Hollande. why does Hollande think that terrorists in Syria need to be armed and inspired to commit new murders, and put up against a wall in Mali? Or does Hollande think that there are good terrorists - "ours" and bad terrorists - "strangers"? So how to distinguish terrorists " strangers" from "their"?
Today they are speaking even more harshly in Syria.
"Western states continue to pursue a hypocritical policy of double standards. This is especially noticeable in their attitude towards terrorism. Western states divide it into two groups - acceptable, which corresponds to their policy and expresses their interests, and unacceptable, which threatens their citizens and their interests," Syrian news agency SANA said in a statement.
“The extremists that France has declared war on in Mali are like terrorist mercenaries who are committing unprecedented crimes in Syria. The terrorism that operates in Syria has operated and continues to operate in other countries. Mali is just one of them.
The terrorism that France allegedly counters in Mali is no different from the terrorism that France, along with its allies, supports in Syria."
However, we digress from the chronicle of the events of the first hours and days of Operation Serval.
Who agrees"? Who - "against"? Abstentions - "no"! There are already thousands of victims
France informed Russia in advance about the start of a military operation in Mali, the purpose of which is to neutralize the Islamist threat. This was stated by Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN Vitaly Churkin before the start of the meeting in the UN Security Council. "The French informed us about their actions, so we have no complaints against them in this regard," he said.
V. Churkin stressed that among the members of the Security Council there is a "unity of assessments of the threats" that stem from the situation that has developed in Mali. He recalled that in Mali it was planned "the gradual deployment of African forces simultaneously with diplomatic efforts ... There was hope that the build-up of the armed potential of Mali and the Africans would create a certain element of pressure. Unfortunately, this did not happen," V. Churkin noted.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said that "the operation will last several weeks." Doubtful. Suppose a year is at least, if not longer. The Americans entered Afghanistan with a UN Security Council mandate for 6 months. Been there for over 10 years...
François Hollande, during a visit to the French naval base "Peace Camp" in Abu Dhabi, said that "in the future, we can pass the baton to African troops as soon as possible." At the same time, France will maintain its presence in the conflict zone "both in the form of ground units and in the air."
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon supported the desire of UN member states to assist Mali in the fight against extremists. He expressed hope that the assistance of international partners would help eliminate the Islamist threat.
The Chairman of the African Union, President of Benin, Thomas Boni Yayi, welcomed the decision of the French authorities to send a military contingent to Mali to support government troops in the fight against Islamist militants. "On behalf of Africa, I would like to express gratitude to France and its president, its government, the French people, who were able to appreciate the seriousness of the situation in Mali and West Africa," Boni Yayi said during his visit to Canada.
The UK will provide logistical support to the French contingents participating in the operation against Islamist militants in Mali. However, British military personnel will not be involved in the fighting, according to a statement from the office of Prime Minister David Cameron.
The operation of French troops against militants in northern Mali has led to an increase in the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees, as well as to a deterioration in the humanitarian situation in the African state as a whole. This was announced at a briefing by representatives of various UN agencies in Geneva.
"The number of IDPs in Mali, according to estimates as of January 14, amounted to 228.9 thousand people. For comparison, before the military intervention, this figure was 198.5 thousand people," Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told reporters. reference to the statistics of the International Organization for Migration. According to the UN Children's Fund, half of the IDPs are children. 4.2 million Malian citizens will need humanitarian aid in 2013, according to the UN.
Washington officially began supporting the French military operation. Obama Administration Offers Drones to Paris aircrafts designed for conducting reconnaissance and observation missions. In addition, the possibility of the Americans providing "air tankers" for refueling French military aircraft, as well as providing Paris with information from US intelligence agencies on the situation in Mali (in-in - they cannot cope), providing it with certain types of logistical assistance, explained US officials .
Canada has sent a group of special forces to Niger to train the military personnel of this African country in methods of countering Islamic extremists. Apparently, it is in Canada that this type of wrestling is especially famous ...
Niger and Togo announced that they would send 500 troops to Mali each. Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, Senegal are ready to send reinforcements in the near future. Seven Western powers are ready to take part in the operation, including, for example, Denmark.
What do they have there - anointed with honey? Why climb into hell, where the French have already rushed?
Who benefits? Where is the interest?
But from this moment the most interesting begins - we will study the background of the Malian conflict and the reasons for the keen interest in Mali among the major Western countries.
First, a few remarks from a man who understands French politics very well.
In an article published in the Journal Du Dimanche entitled "Non, la guerre ce n'est pas la France" ("No, war is not France"), Dominique de Villepin writes that for France in Mali "no of the conditions for success is not guaranteed." Have you forgotten that Dominique de Villepin is a former Prime Minister under President Jacques Chirac?
"The unanimity on this war, the decision (to start a war) apparently made in haste, the hackneyed arguments of the war 'against terrorism' worry me ... We will fight blindly, because there is no single goal in this war. To stop the advance of jihadist forces to the south of the country, to conquer the north, to eradicate the bases of AQIM ("al-Qaeda in the countries of the Islamic Maghreb") - these are all different goals of the war."
"We will fight alone because we do not have a solid Malian partner - the removal of the president in March 2012 and the prime minister in December, the disintegration of the fragmented Malian army, the general incapacity of the state in Mali ... So who will we rely on?"
And yet, contrary to these sound assessments, Hollande began his war. Why?
Is he really "called to fight" by the dubious laurels of Sarkozy, who became the "Libyan winner" but lost the presidency of France? No. We'll look elsewhere for the answer...
And let's start it with a short digression through the events of recent months with the conclusions that have become very clear during this time.
Alexander Rogers, already mentioned above, describing the overthrow of the legitimate government in Mali in early 2012, notes:
On April 6, taking advantage of the confusion in the capital, the Tuareg rebelled, proclaiming the independent Tuareg state of Azawad.
Then the Islamist organizations Ansar al-Din, the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, the Maghreb al-Qaeda, and others became more active. May 5 Ansar ad-Din captures Timbuktu.
"Islamists" committed acts of vandalism and destroyed a number of objects included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Including the tomb of the ISLAMIC (sic!) Saint Mahmud Ben Amar. This is more like a provocation by some special services, designed to expose the rebels as complete vandal barbarians".
“There is such an impression, one of the bloggers echoes him, that the Islamists destroyed the mausoleums of Timbuktu not for the ideological reasons of the Islamic faith, but for some very harmful third-party hint. Very timely hint".
As a result, the country was actually divided into three parts, controlled by the Tuareg, the Islamists and the government of the "interim president".
White on the map of Mali marks areas controlled by the Islamists, pink (within the country's borders) Tuareg, green - the capital's authorities.
watercharity.org map
So what really happened in Mali? "Evil" terrorists overthrew the "legitimate" and "democratic" president? No. He was overthrown by his own troops.
Or are the "kind" rebels trying to overthrow the "tyrant" who has taken the place of the exiled president in Bamako? No, no one is going to overthrow him - the Islamists have enough of the north of Mali.
And, perhaps, in this situation, the Western "democratic public" is now not taking the side of the "democracy" that does not exist in Mali, that it is on duty declares, but on the side of their own business interests, as she always did?
And this seems to be the correct answer! Even though the business interests of the French "democratic public" and the American "democratic public" in Mali are diametrically opposed...
Even a cursory acquaintance with the data on the wealth of this land says that Mali is full of minerals. The country has concentrated deposits of iron ore, bauxite, lead, manganese, tin, zinc, copper, lithium, silver, and diamonds.
Mali's gold reserves are estimated to be the third largest in Africa.
Moreover, on the mountain for local residents, there are large reserves of uranium ore.
By the way, as soon as the question - "Was the war in Mali started for uranium?" - tried to raise the CNN channel, he was immediately given the command: “Sh!”, and the topic was removed from the screen, although it was announced in the leads ...
Alexander Rogers correctly notes that in December 2012, the UN Security Council approved a plan to send to Mali no earlier than September 2013 3,000 African infantry to carry out "peacekeeping" functions (not to suppress the Islamists, mind you).
But gentlemen from the West cannot wait until September! 'Cause every day is idle mining deprives them of approximately 150 kilograms of gold- Namely, this could happen during the designated, as if by order, offensive of the Islamists in January to the south of Mali, where the main deposits of precious metals are located. Well, with such losses, there is no time for decorum or some formalities like UN Security Council resolutions.
Look, in the neighboring Central African Republic (CAR), some rebels have been advancing on the capital for two months, and no one in the UN is moving. There is no gold there, in the Central African Republic...
Panetta made a Freudian miscalculation. And highlighted something.
Gold, uranium, you say? They are not only necessary for France.
How does our proverb sound? - "Where a horse with a hoof, there is a cancer with a claw."
We here above Afghan recalled - it will not be remembered by nightfall. So, let's talk about Afghanistan now in more detail. Or rather, about the invisible, but strong deep links between the events in Afghanistan and in Mali. A very revealing spectacle is obtained when all this is pulled into the light of God ...
Let's start again with a quote from a high government official.
Talking to reporters on board his plane en route to Europe, Pentagon chief Leon Panetta on January 13 this year. noted that at present the Al-Qaeda group in the countries of the Islamic Maghreb does not pose a direct threat to the United States. Then he caught himself and made a reservation that "in the end, this is her goal," but the first word has already been said. What is called a "Freudian slip"! "Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb poses no immediate threat to the US."
In distant Afghanistan, you understand, Al-Qaeda "poses a threat", but in Mali, in the area of responsibility of AFRICOM (US Command in Africa) - "does not"!
And why? But because, as the New York Times writes, "military rebels in Mali, whose actions preceded the seizure of the north of the country by armed Islamists, were trained by military instructors from the United States." And part of the rebels went to the Islamists. "The help of the Americans turned out to be useless, they made the wrong choice," a Malian officer said in an interview with the newspaper.
So Panetta knows what she's talking about!
The secret of the roots of this Freudian slip was sought by one of the bloggers under the nickname Etoruskiy. What he found is described in the analytical article "A Gateway to Africa for the United States or the Taliban of the Southwest Sahara." It was said there back in the fall of 2012 (the estimates are accurate, which demonstrates the high level of the author's analytics) literally the following:
The "Great geopolitical game" that began with the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan in 1989 is practically being repeated today in Azawad.
The Afghan Taliban movement, headed by Mullah Mohammed Omar, proclaimed its goal the creation of a "truly Islamic" state and was directed against the government of Burhanuddin Rabbani and all the military-political groups of the Afghan Mujahideen, who continuously fought for power after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989. troops.
It is authentically known that the Pakistani government supplied the Taliban army with weapons, and Saudi Arabia supplied the money. Also, Western European journalists in the late 90s claimed that the United States stood behind Pakistan and the Saudis during the formation of the Taliban ...
And now let's return to Mali and draw analogies with the Afghan events of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Azawad is a historical region that includes the neighboring regions of Mali, Niger, Chad and Algeria, where nomadic Tuareg tribes have lived for centuries. On March 22, 2012, rebels from the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), who took advantage of the chaos in Mali after the fall of President Amadou Toumani Touré, declared the independence of their Tuareg state.
The MNLA functionaries took control of two-thirds of the territory of Mali - its entire desert part with such large cities as Gao, Kidal, and one of the cradles of medieval African civilization - the city of Timbuktu.
However, the calculations of the Tuareg separatists were not destined to come true, since they chose as their allies the Islamists - the Ansar ad-Din and Al-Qaeda in the countries of the Islamic Maghreb.
Having achieved the expulsion of units of the regular Malian army from the north of the country, the MNLA quickly lost control over the liberated territory, where the Islamists proclaimed their own emirate, living in accordance with Sharia law. United in the "Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa" Islamists waged war against their recent Tuareg allies.
And on July 16, when "Ansar-Din" knocked out the Tuareg from the last stronghold in the north of Mali - the small town of Ansogo, the leadership of the Tuareg rebels of the MNLA announced the end of the struggle for the independence of Azawad.
The most remarkable thing is that, unlike the topics of the Middle East, Iran, Afghanistan and the global financial crisis, such an event as the capture of the strategically important territory of Azawad by fundamentalists is practically not covered by the world media. At the same time, the silence about the problems of Mali by the American media seems to be the most logical.
I think that it will last as long as the "Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa" creates problems and potential threats in the Western Sahara to the geopolitical competitors of the United States, which until recently had undeniable influence in the region - France and China.
Indeed, today for both of these countries, uranium, strategically important for nuclear energy, is under the threat of Islamic extremists, and Nigerian oil for China and Algerian gas for France from carbohydrates ...
For five years, the US intelligence services "brought up and pumped up" the Taliban in order to get a reason, supported by the entire world community, to enter Central Asia in 2001. The current Salafi Azawad is a similar gateway for the US to West Africa.
The main difference is that over time, events accelerate and the next “Storm in the Sahara” will mature much earlier than in five years,” writes blogger Etoruskiy.
How to look into the water! And half a year has not passed, and the operation "Storm in the Sahara" named by him began under the name ... "Serval".
It seems that the French drew similar conclusions, and rushed first.
Now we are waiting for the answer of the Americans - it was not in vain that they weaved the network of this combination for so long ...
These conclusions are so interesting and profound that I will allow quoting some more assessments of the cited author. For example, as a result of UN Security Council resolution 2085 of December 20, 2012.
Perhaps, in a few paragraphs, he clearly explains the reasons for such a hasty entry of French troops into Mali and France's violation of the decisions of the Security Council on the start of a military operation no earlier than September 2013.
If Hollande was guided by the same logic, then everything just falls into place ...
“Now, in more detail, why September was chosen as the deadline, although France, I am sure, is ready to begin active actions to liberate the north of Mali from the Islamists much earlier than the fall of 2013. (What is happening before our eyes - S.F.).
On the other hand, the United States has the desire and the need to independently participate in the reformatting of West Africa on its own terms, but will be ready for this only approximately by the fall of 2013. (Perhaps, hence the unexpected refusal of Pa Ki-moon to finance the operation, which was discussed at the beginning - S.F.).
It is unlikely that the United States will allow the elimination of Malian Islamists by international forces ahead of time. This will happen only when the States are ready to participate in the next "democratization" on their own and on the terms of Washington, not Paris.
The United States is seriously concerned about its own strengthening on the African continent, and the most convenient starting point for this is West Africa, which is geographically closest to America."
Syrian corner of Malian events
Now for some geopolitics.
When assumptions about the active participation of the United States in the events on the African continent begin to pass into the category of realities, in the Sahara region it becomes "hot" not from sunlight, but from political upheavals. We analyzed the details of the US African policy and the creation of AFRICOM for these purposes in the article "Poor, poor Africa". Let's continue now, with new arguments in hand.
"The events of the past year have created two of the most convenient gateways for the United States to Africa. On the map they are designated as plans "A" and "B", and their title contains one or another reason that the United States can use to implement these plans one by one or almost simultaneously Do you think the United States does not have enough strength for active operations in both directions? Not a fact. In plan "B" France will definitely take part (Happened! - S.F.) "- says another analytical article by the mentioned author, who seems to , knows these problems as "Our Father".
Upon entering Mali, the United States (which did not take place, but the Game has just begun there - S.F.), the Americans take control of Niger's uranium and Nigeria's oil, which are extremely important for China's energy.
At the same time, Algeria, the last stronghold of the remnants of secular Islam not controlled by the United States in North Africa, which has not yet been affected by the chaos of the "Arab Spring", is surrounded. If the United States, as a result of NATO's Libyan operation, took away the monopoly on Libyan oil from Europe, then why not deprive the EU of the monopoly on Algerian gas as well?
And all this on its "subordinate" territory of Africa (Mali, Algeria) could France have allowed?!
Map http:ic.pics.livejournal.com/etoruskiy
As a result, the Syrian conflict is steadily turning into a permanent war between the Syrians and the Islamist mercenaries, whose flow to Syria is unabated. The losses of militants in recent months are too serious, and they must be constantly replenished from neighboring countries. And that means these jihadists will not appear in Mali to fight for Tumbuktu, but will remain in Syria, which is quite in the hands of the Americans. Hence the Freudian slip of Leon Panetta...
And another "card", as they say, "in suit" - Hollande (unlike his foreign minister) said that the operation in Mali "will continue as long as necessary." This can play a cruel joke on him. Hollande will get bogged down in Mali, and without Hollande, NATO will not start a campaign against Syria... And the Syrian opposition will turn out to be useless to anyone in Paris or Washington.
Escalation and its consequences
And the deepening of the crisis in Mali is just around the corner.
“It is very likely that foreign intervention will lead to a monstrous escalation of the conflict and its spread to neighboring countries - Algeria, Libya, Sudan, Niger,” political scientist Alexander Ignatenko is sure. “The upcoming war promises to be quite long and complicated. The “domino effect” will affect everything states that are neighbors of Mali. It is very likely that foreign intervention will lead to a monstrous escalation of the conflict and its spread to neighboring countries - Algeria, Libya, Sudan, Niger, throughout Greater Sudan."
This cannot but worry Russia.
On January 11, a telephone conversation took place between the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov and the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary General for the Sahel Romano Prodi at his request, the official website of the Russian Foreign Ministry reports.
"During the conversation, an exchange of views was held on a set of issues related to the situation in the Sahara-Sahel region.
Emphasis was placed on the situation in the Republic of Mali, where, as a result of a protracted political crisis, the entire spectrum of regional challenges, from terrorist to humanitarian, has become most acute.
The need to continue the consolidated efforts of the international community, regional and sub-regional African organizations was noted in order to resolve the Malian crisis on the basis of the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council.
Particular concern was expressed over the rise in terrorist activity in the region caused by the power vacuum in northern Mali.
The minister again drew attention to the facts of uncontrolled proliferation of weapons in the wake of the conflict in Libya, which creates the basis for an escalation of tension throughout the Sahel."
Yes, exactly - "in the wake of the conflict in Libya"!
Here is what blogger Evgeny Larin writes about this:
“There is an absolute misunderstanding among the anti-African and anti-Arab Western elites that the war in Mali is a consequence of the NATO war in Libya.
It was the NATO alliance that defeated the Libyan army, destroyed tens of thousands of Libyan citizens and destroyed the entire infrastructure of the country, created by the hands of the Libyans, thanks to the wisely used natural resources, over the 42 years of the existence of the Jamahiriya.
It was the NATO alliance that made it possible for Islamist terrorists to seize huge storages of Libyan weapons and, moreover, supplied them with the latest European weapons in 2011-2012.
The weapon that the Islamists are now using against their former allies and "patrons" in the war against Libya."
Last hour:
The majority of the French support President Francois Hollande's decision to intervene militarily in Mali. According to the results of the survey, 75 percent of those surveyed approve of the operation.
For comparison, the French operation in Libya in 2011 was supported by 66 percent of the citizens, and the introduction of the French contingent into Afghanistan in 2001 by only half of the country's population.
At the same time, 64 percent of the French fear that the involvement of France in the conflict in Mali will lead to an increase in the terrorist threat directly within the country.
Maybe Depardieu is right that he has already left?
War in Mali
On January 11, 2013, France launched a military operation in Mali. As French officials explained, "in response to a call for help from the authorities of this African state."
Until recently, Mali, according to the Europeans who lived there, was one of the most peaceful places on Earth. However, now this country is at the epicenter of a new global "war on terrorism".
BACKGROUND AND THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR IN MALI
Mali is an agrarian country in northern Africa, bordering Algeria in the north, Senegal, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso in the west, and Niger in the south. The territory of the country is three and a half times larger than Germany. A significant part of it is occupied by the Sahara desert. Mali has no access to the sea.
The population is 12 million people. 90% of the population are Muslims. In the north of the country, in the Sahara, live white nomadic pastoralists - the Tuareg, who are not Muslims. Their relations with the black population of the country are strained. However, there have been no open skirmishes until recently.
The level of welfare and industrial development of the country is very low, 50% of the country's population is illiterate, the majority live in subsistence farming. Until 1960 Mali was a French colony.
The war in Mali began in January 2012, when the Tuareg rebelled to create their own independent state. After a series of successful clashes with government forces, they established control over the northern part of Mali, proclaiming their Azawad state on this territory. The rebels managed to shoot down a government MiG-21 with MANPADS; the towns of Menaka, Tessalit, Nyafunke, Agelhok and Lere were captured, as well as two military bases with weapons stored on them. According to rumors, the uprising was orchestrated by the French themselves. Weapons for the rebels were supplied from Libya, which, after the fall of the Gaddafi regime, according to one observer, turned into a "big open-air weapons market."
On March 22, 2012, a military coup took place in Mali. Democratically elected President Amadou Toumani Touré was ousted by the military. Power was transferred to the pro-French "transitional president" Dionkunda Traore. Interestingly, the organizer of the coup, Captain Amadou Aya Sannoy, had previously received military training in the United States. Sannoy explained the need to overthrow the current government by the fact that it did not take decisive measures to suppress the Tuareg uprising. However, the overthrow of the government did not help to contain the uprising, on the contrary, the war in Mali was gaining momentum, the country was plunged into even greater chaos.
In their struggle against the central government, the Tuareg temporarily allied themselves with the Islamist organization Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Previously, this well-armed criminal organization was based in Algiers, and was called the Salafist Group of Warriors and Preachers (GSPC, in French pronunciation). In 2007, it absorbed the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), which took an active part in destabilizing the situation in Libya. LIFG leader jihadist Abdelhakim Belhadj in the 80s. he was trained by the CIA as part of the Mujahideen training program in Afghanistan, and during the events in Libya, his people were in the forefront of the so-called "Tripoli Brigades". In the past two years, the Algerian armed forces have succeeded in pushing al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb into northern Mali.
Already 10 days after the coup, the Tuareg, together with the Islamists, recaptured the large settlements of Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu from the armed forces of Mali. Almost immediately, the United States and France demanded the restoration of a civilian government in Mali, and through the ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African Organization) controlled by them, they subjected the country to an economic blockade. By doing this, they further weakened the central authority of Mali in the fight against the rebels, and deepened the plight in the country.
Despite the protection of the territorial integrity of Mali declared by Paris, many foreign observers note that the cause of the current conflict should be sought in the natural resources that this country has. There is a lot of gold mined in the southwest of the country. There is also uranium, there are deposits of molybdenum ores, bauxites. The northern regions are considered promising for oil and gas exploration. Most of this wealth is controlled by French companies, which have recently come under increasing competitive pressure from China. Thus, the roots of the armed conflict are most likely contained in the clash of American-French and Chinese interests in this underdeveloped but resource-rich territory.
THE DEPARTMENT OF FRENCH TROOPS TO MALI - OPERATION "SERVAL"
In early 2013, the rebels began to threaten the Malian capital - the city of Bamako, and Paris independently decided to protect the Malian statehood.
On January 15, at a meeting of the UN Security Council (SC), all its members recognized that France "acts in the spirit of resolution 2085", which authorizes the deployment of the African International Mission in Support of Mali (AFISMA). At the same time, the haste of Paris' actions came as a surprise to everyone, since the international community had already determined the procedure for resolving this conflict, despite the fact that the question of French intervention in Mali had never been discussed by anyone anywhere. A few months before the start of the operation, many African leaders even stated that the ground mission in the republic should be carried out only by African forces, since the times when Europe solved Africa's problems are over.
French troops land in Mali
Back in the fall of 2012, the heads of 15 ECOWAS member states turned to the international community for help in restoring the territorial integrity of Mali. At the summit held in Nigeria, it was decided to send a military contingent of 3,300 people to this country. Most of the military personnel decided to allocate Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Niger. On December 20, 2012, the UN Security Council authorized the deployment of these forces to Mali. The adopted resolution noted that the African Union would provide military personnel for this, and the European Union would provide them with logistical support. The document did not specify the date for the start of the operation, but, according to some Security Council officials, this could happen no earlier than the second half of 2013. At the end of December 2012, the European Union decided to send its military to Mali at the beginning of 2013. The main goal of this mission, as stated by the EU leadership, should be to assist in increasing the combat capabilities of the Malian Armed Forces. It was assumed that the mission would include only 400 troops.
The operation, called "Serval", began with attacks by French Air Force combat aircraft on the ground facilities of the Islamists, primarily training camps and warehouses. About 550 French troops landed in Bamako.
On January 11, the army of Mali, with the support of French troops, recaptured the city of Kona from the Islamists. Observers noted that the parties involved in the conflict immediately suffered losses - on the first day, the Islamists shot down a French helicopter (the pilot died). Only in the battles for the city of Kona, 11 soldiers of the army of Mali were killed, 60 were injured. Foreign sources estimate the losses of militants at hundreds of people, human rights activists started talking about the death of civilians as a result of the bombing.
However, the Tuareg rebels continued their offensive and on January 14 captured the city of Diabali, 400 km from the capital. On January 15, a column of several dozen French armored personnel carriers left Bamako for the front line. On January 16, for the first time since the beginning of the operation, French units entered into a direct ground clash with militant units in the vicinity of the city of Diabali. On January 18-19, French units, together with the army of Mali, liberated the cities of Diabali and Kona.
After the entry of French troops into Mali, the situation in the region deteriorated sharply. Algeria has closed its border with this country. Mauritania has deployed army units along the borders with Mali, reinforcements have been sent to a number of regions of the country, and the number of combat aircraft control sorties has increased. Algeria and Morocco have allowed the French Air Force to use their airspace.
The militants of several groups, demanding the reversal of their decision by the Algerian leadership, took hostages at the In-Amenas oil and gas complex in the Sahara desert, located 100 km from the Libyan border and 1200 km from the capital of Algeria. As a result of the anti-terrorist operation of the Algerian military, almost all of them were destroyed. At the same time, some of the hostages also died, among whom were both Algerians and foreigners.
After the first days of Operation Serval, Paris decided to increase the number of its military contingent in Mali, first to 2,500 people, and a little later to 4 thousand. Units of the French Foreign Legion were transferred to Mali: the 2nd parachute and 1st cavalry regiments ( 2 R.E.P. and 1 R.E.C.).
As a result, the flow of ammunition and logistics equipment transferred from Europe to Mali has increased dramatically. Since France is conducting this operation independently - outside the framework of NATO, its airlift capabilities do not meet the needs of the deployed group. Some countries began to assist her with their military transport aircraft. Germany sent two C-130 military transport aircraft to help France, Spain - 1 C-130.
Among other things, Paris turned to the world community with a request for urgent financial assistance in conducting Operation Serval. According to independent military experts, the first four weeks of the war in Mali cost France already 70 million, while the EU funded this operation in the amount of 50 million euros.
FURTHER FIGHTING IN MALI
Rapidly moving forward, the French troops began to liberate settlements from the rebels. No major resistance was reported. According to French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, the Islamists fired rockets at the French, but to no avail. In response, French troops killed dozens of Islamists.
In this war, the French had an unexpected ally - the Tuareg. Fearing reprisals from the army of Mali, they decided to enlist the support of the French in exchange for their loyalty.
On January 21, Franco-Malian troops took the city of Duentza on the road to Gao; On January 26, the stronghold of the Islamists, the city of Gao, was taken (it has an airport and a bridge of strategic importance); January 27 - Timbuktu; January 30 - Kidal.
In the end, it became clear that the Islamist groups left all the major cities in Mali and disappeared into the desert. The war in Mali has entered a new phase - the guerrilla.
On February 11, Gao was unexpectedly recaptured by the Islamists. The police station in the city was burned down. To regain control of the city, the French were forced to shell it for four hours, and then fight the Islamists in street battles. Since then, soldiers at checkpoints in Gao have been attacked by suicide bombers. Two soldiers were wounded.
Having liberated all major cities in northern Mali from militants, French troops, together with their allies, began an operation to eliminate Islamist bases in the Ifoghas mountain range near the border with Algeria. A contingent of 1,800 men from Chad came to the aid of the French army. One of the detachments of the Chadian special forces was headed by General Mahamat Idris Deby Itno, the son of Chadian President Idris Deby. The Tuareg, who knew the area, provided the French with intelligence information, directing them to the bases and warehouses of the militants who had taken refuge in the massif. The operation turned out to be unexpectedly high losses for the contingent from Chad - 23 dead.
On March 4, international forces reported the elimination in Ifoghas of one of the leaders of the Al-Qaeda group in the countries of the Islamic Maghreb, Abdelhamid Abu Zeid, whose people kidnapped and killed foreign hostages in West Africa, and Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the organizer of the seizure of the Algerian gas complex in In -Amenase, as well as 40 of their supporters. The credit for eliminating two especially dangerous terrorists belongs to the Chadian military.
In response, al-Qaeda militants continued their guerrilla war. On 17 March, a French soldier was reported killed in combat in northern Mali. As it turned out, this is the fifth French soldier who died during the fighting in Mali. Around the same time, a French military vehicle was blown up in the Tesalit area near the Algerian border. Three servicemen were injured. Near the city of Gao, 5 rockets exploded, but no one was injured. On March 20, the Islamists announced the execution of French citizen Philippe Verdon, who was captured by them in 2011. Obviously, the stabilization of the situation is still far away, and the guerrilla war in Mali will continue.
The timing of the completion of the operation "Serval" is not defined. Despite the optimistic assurances of French politicians, it is already clear that Paris has not fully calculated all the risks and possible consequences of hostilities. Despite the fact that the French contingent in Mali will begin to decline from April, the confrontation with extremists will take more than one month. And, as the politicians of the states neighboring Mali note, if, nevertheless, the extremists, with the support of the world community, are driven out of the territory of this African country, they will move to neighboring regions, and the success of the anti-terrorist operation will be imaginary and temporary. Category:
Global Research
Canada
Original publication: The War on Mali. What you Should Know: An Eldorado of Uranium, Gold, Petroleum, Strategic Minerals …
The French government stated that:
“Sending 2,500 troops to support Malian government soldiers fighting Islamist rebels. France has already deployed some 750 troops to Mali and French transport planes arrived in Bamako on Tuesday morning….
We will continue to deploy forces on the ground and in the air...
We have one goal. To ensure that when we leave, when we end the intervention, Mali will remain a safe state, with legitimate authority, an electoral process and no terrorists threatening its territory.”
Here is the official account of events by France and those who support it. And, of course, it gets a lot of coverage in the mainstream media.
France is also supported by other NATO members. US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta confirmed that the US is providing intelligence to French troops in Mali. Canada, Belgium, Denmark and Germany also publicly supported the French invasion, promising logistical support in punitive measures against the rebels.
If we believe these stories, we will again be deluded about the true causes of what is happening. An overview of Mali's natural resources shows what's really going on.
Natural resources of Mali(highlighted)
Gold: Mali is Africa's third largest gold producer ( fourth in reserves, - approx. trans.); large-scale exploration continues. Mali has been known for its gold since the pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324 by the great Malian Emperor Kenkou Moussa with a caravan carrying over 8 tons of gold! Consequently, Mali has been a traditional mining country for more than half a millennium.
There are currently seven active gold mines in Mali, including: Kalana and Morila in southern Mali, Yatela, Sadiola and Lulo in Western Mali, and deposits that have recently resumed production, notably Shyama and Tabakato. Extensive gold exploration projects include the Kofi, Kodieran, Gounkoto, Komana, Banankoro, Kobada and Nampula deposits.
Uranus: encouraging signs and exploration in full swing. Exploration is currently being carried out by several companies that have identified clear signs of uranium deposits in Mali. Uranium deposits are located in the Falea region, which is adjacent to the 150 km² North Guinean Neoproterozoic sedimentary basin of Falea, which is characterized by significant radiometric anomalies. Falea's uranium reserves are estimated at 5,000 tons. The Kidal project in northeastern Mali, with an area of 19,930 km², covers a large crystalline geological province known as the Adrar Iforas massif (L "Adrar Des Iforas). The uranium reserves of the Samit deposit, Gao province alone, total 200 tons.
Diamonds: Mali has the potential to develop its own diamond mining: in the administrative district of Kayes (mining area 1), thirty (30) kimberlite pipes were discovered, eight of which contained traces of diamonds. About eight small diamonds were found in the administrative region of Sikasso (southern Mali).
Gems the following species can be found in:
- Sirk Nioro and Bafoulabe: Garnets and rare magnetic minerals.
- Sirk Bougouni and the Falemé Basin: pegmatite deposits.
- Le Gourma: garnets and corundums.
- Adrar-Iforas: pegmatites and metamorphic rocks.
- Hombori Douentz Belt: quartz and carbonates.
Iron ore, bauxite and manganese A: The significant resources present in Mali have not yet been exploited. Mali is estimated to have over 2 million tons of potential iron ore, located in the areas of Diedian Kenieba, Diamou and Bale.
Bauxite reserves estimated at 1.2 million tons are located in Kita, Kenieba and Bafing Makana. Traces of manganese have been found at Bafing Makana, Tondibi and Tassiga.
Other Mineral Resources of Mali:
Deposits of lime rocks: estimated 10 million tons (Gangoteri), estimated 30 million tons (Astro) and Bach El Neri (Nord de Goundam) estimated 2.2 million tons.
- Copper: deposits in Bafing Makan (Western region) and Kwatagouna (Northern region).
- Marble: Selinkegni (Bafoulabe) estimated reserves 10.6 MT and traces in Madibaya.
- Gypsum: Taodenite (35 MT), Indise Kereit (Nord de Tessalit), estimate - 0.37 MT.
- Kaolin A: Potential reserves are estimated (1MT), located in Gao (Northern region).
- Phosphates: Deposits are concentrated in Tamagilel, production is estimated at 18,000 tons/year and reserves are estimated at 12 million tons. There are also four potential deposits in the northern part with reserves of 10 million tons.
Lead and zinc: Tessalite in the Northern region (estimated reserves of 1.7 tons) and indications of Bafing Makana (Western region) and Fafa (Northern Mali)
- Lithium: Indications in Kayes (Western region) and estimated reserves of 4 Mt in Bouguni (Southern region)
- oil shale: reserves are estimated at 870 million tons, traces are found in Agamor and Almoustrat in the Northern region.
- Lignite: potential estimated at 1.3 million tons, Bourem deposit (Northern region)
- Rock salt: Estimated reserves 53 Mt Taoudenni (Northern Region)
- diatomaceous earth: Estimated reserves of 65 Mt at Douna Behri (Northern Region)
Mali's oil reserves are already attracting significant investor interest.
Oil exploration in Mali dates back to the 1970s, when sporadic seismic and drilling operations showed likely signs of oil. Due to rising prices in the market for global oil and gas resources, Mali actively encourages oil exploration, production and possible export. Mali can also serve as a strategic route for the transportation and export of sub-Saharan oil and gas to Western countries, and there is also the possibility of connecting the Taoudeni Basin to the European market via Algeria.
Work has already begun on a new interpretation of previously collected geophysical and geological data, with a focus on five sedimentary basins in the north of the country, including: Taoudeni, Tamesna, Ilumenden, Ditch Nara and Gao.
So, here is what is available.
Regardless of what the media reports, the aims of this new war are nothing more than siphoning another country's natural resources for international corporations to access. What is now being done in Mali with bombs and bullets is being done in Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Spain through debt enslavement.
And people suffer and die.
The Guardian reported 2 days ago:
“The death toll has not yet been calculated, but a communiqué on state television on Saturday evening stated that at least 11 Malians were killed in Konna.
Sori Diakite, the mayor of Conn, says the dead included children who drowned by throwing themselves into the river while trying to escape the bombing.
“Someone died in their yards, or at their homes. People tried to run for shelter. Some drowned in the river. At least three children threw themselves into the river. They tried to swim to the other side. There has been significant damage to the infrastructure,” said the mayor, who fled with his family and is now in Bamako.
Who knows what the death toll is today.
May God help any country and its people with natural resources.
Links:
http://rt.com/news/f...nch-troops-006/
All information taken from Le Journee Miniere et Petrolieres du Mali (government information) http://www.jmpmali.c...dpetroleum.html
http://www.guardian....ch-intervention
Appendix
Reference IFC "Mineral"
The Republic of Mali is a state in West Africa. It borders Algeria in the northeast, Niger in the east, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea in the south, Mauritania and Senegal in the west. It has no access to the sea.
Area - 1240 thousand sq. km. Population - 13.5 million people. (2005), average density - 11 people. per 1 sq. km. 20% of the population lives in cities. Among the adult population, 62% are illiterate.
The capital of the country is Bamako (about 1 million people), other large cities (thousand people in 2002): Segou (132.4), Sikasso (125.4), Mopti (114.4), Gao (105) .
The territory is predominantly flat (200-300 m above sea level); in the north of the plain are the rocky deserts of Western and Central Sahara. From the south, the plain is bordered in places by plateaus and mountain ranges (Khombori with highest point 1155 m, Manding, Kenedugu, Dogon, Gandamiya), in the northeast - the Adrar-Iforas mountains.
The climate is tropical continental, in the south of the country - subequatorial. Average monthly temperatures are from 20 to 35°С. Precipitation varies from 50-150 mm per year in the north to 1500 mm in the south. From January to June, the northeast wind "harmattan" often blows, causing dust storms. July to October (November) is the rainy season.
In the north, 65% of the territory is occupied by the desert (Sahara), to the south it is replaced by semi-desert and deserted savannas (Sahel), and even further to the south - by typical and tall grass shrouds.
The main water arteries are the Niger and Senegal rivers. The length of water transport routes is 1815 km.
The railway network includes 729 km of tracks. The length of roads is 15.1 thousand km, of which 1827 km are paved (2004). There are 27 airports, including seven of modern class.
Mali is one of the least economically developed countries in the world. Gross domestic product (GDP) in 2006 - 5.9 billion dollars. ($437 per capita); compared with 2005, GDP grew by $0.7 billion.
The basis of the economy is agriculture. 70% of the able-bodied population is employed in agricultural production (2003). The pace of agricultural development is low due to the archaic methods of its conduct and the persistence of traditional socio-economic relations. The contribution of the agricultural sector to GDP in 2006 was 37%. The main export crops are peanuts (Mali is one of the main African peanut exporters) and cotton. They also grow tropical fruits, oranges, vegetables, corn, cereals (wheat, rice, millet, fonio, sorghum), sugar cane, cassava, yams, kenaf, tobacco, and tea. Harvest damage is caused by frequent droughts, as well as locust invasions. Mali is one of the largest pastoral countries in West Africa; cattle, goats, camels, sheep, pigs, donkeys, horses are bred here (85% of the livestock is exported).
The share of industry in GDP is 24% (2006). In addition to mining, there are developed industries focused on the processing of agricultural raw materials (food, tobacco, light, textile, leather); there are enterprises for the production of chemical, electromechanical products, building materials, and agricultural implements.
About 80% of electricity is generated by hydroelectric power plants on the Niger River (HPP Sotuba), Senegal (Felu) and Sankarani (Selinge). Wood and charcoal occupy a prominent place in Mali's energy mix. The problem of electrification of the country is acute.
Layout of the main minerals of Mali
Mali's main mineral is gold. The reserves of iron ores, lead and zinc, manganese, and phosphorus have been calculated, but they are insignificant. Resources of diamonds, bauxite, tin have been identified. There are also deposits of kaolin, rock salt, gypsum, lignite, bituminous shale, limestone, marble, spodumene (lithium) manifestations. Gold is being mined (by 2000, the country ranked third in gold mining on the continent after South Africa and Ghana), phosphorites.
Gold
As of the end of 2006, the resources (without reserves) of gold in Mali are estimated by us at about 0.6-0.8 thousand tons. Their main share falls on two ore regions: the Falem belt along the western border of the country (coinciding with the basin of the river of the same name) and the Bagoe ore-placer region in the south of the country (Bagoe river basin).
Reserves of all categories (total reserves) of gold in Mali at the end of 2006 amounted to 690 tons; this is approximately 0.6% of world reserves. They include high category reserves (proven reserves similar to Russian B and C1 categories). Reserves of high categories include reserves of proven (in Russia for gold deposits - categories B + C1) and probable (C1) categories prepared for development, as well as reserves of explored deposits and explored areas of mines of the measured category (in terms of "density", the density of the exploration network corresponds to Russian category C1). Proven gold reserves in Mali at the end of 2006 amounted to 420 tons.
In terms of gold reserves, Mali is currently in fourth place in Africa (after South Africa, Ghana and Tanzania). The main large deposits of the country: Morila, Yatela, Siama, Kodieran, etc. - belong to the economically important geological and industrial type of gold deposits in carbonaceous rocks of sandy-shale formations. The deposits are hosted by the most powerful stratum of Lower Birrimian rocks (PR11), crumpled into steep folds, mainly of north-northeast strike. Another large deposit - Sadiola is characterized by the development of ore bodies in the cracks of the fault zone, which intersects an extended tectonically deformed dike-like body of diorite porphyrites of the Early Proterozoic age and its host sandstones and shales; Based on this, the deposit is classified as a geological-industrial type of gold ore objects in fragile geological formations.
Many of the listed deposits (from northwest to southeast): Yatela, Sadiola, Lulo, Tabakato and Segala, Baraya, Dar Salam, Medinandi, as well as a number of deposits and occurrences in Senegal, are confined to fractures associated with an extended (more than 250 km) zone of ore-controlling faults, stretching along the Falem River and further south-south-east to Guinea. This is the so-called Kedugou-Kenieba fault zone, with which the Falem gold ore belt spatially coincides.
The ore bodies of deposits in Mali are mainly represented by three types: zones of vein-disseminated and stockwork mineralization, zones of ore dissemination and veins or vein-vein bodies.
Zones of vein-disseminated and stockwork mineralization prevail, which are most characteristic of large and medium-sized deposits. Zones of disseminated mineralization with a gold grade of 2.3-2.8 g/t are predominantly developed in medium-sized deposits. Veins and vein-veinlet ore bodies are rare in Mali deposits. They are typical of small deposits, which include, for example, the Kalana deposit localized in hornblende-quartz hornfelses bordering the stock of quartz diorite-porphyrites, as well as Medinandi in quartz-sericite metasomatites that developed during the replacement of Lower Birrim sandstones.
In addition, placer gold deposits are known in the country, which are poorly explored, except for a small ore-placer cluster Kalana in the upper reaches of the Bale River. Placers belong to the floodplain and terrace types. For the remaining placers in the Kangaba area (the Niger River and its northern tributaries) and in the middle reaches of the Bagoe River, only gold resources corresponding to the inferred categories in terms of exploration have been estimated. Many of the placers have not been explored at all. The maximum resources of some of the most extensive placers only approach 1000 kg, usually amounting to several hundred kilograms at a gold content of 1-3 g/m3. Local artels and solitary prospectors prefer to work out richer small placers (spoon type) in the upper reaches of streams and small rivers using artisanal methods.
The largest gold deposits are owned by South African companies, including the transnational company AngloGold Ashanti, which traditionally ranks first or second in the world among gold mining companies. South African companies (AngloGold Ashanti, RandGold Resources and Lamgold Corp.) account for more than 3/4 of the proven reserves and more than 90% of the gold extracted in the country.
The gold ore deposits of Sadiola, Morila, Lulo, Yatela, Kalana, and since the spring of 2007 - Segala are being mined by industrial methods. Small placers are mined by artisanal methods, mainly in the Kangaba region, in the basins of the Bagoe and Falem rivers, as well as placers in the Kalana region.
In 2006, during the development of all these objects, 54 tons of gold were obtained, and the lion's share was mined by mines.
The ores of the deposits were processed at the enrichment and gold recovery plants of the Sadiola, Lulo, Morila and Kalana mines. There is no information about gold refining. It can be assumed that it was sent for refinement to the smelters of South African mine owners.
The most large-scale exploration works (GE) and industrial evaluation of gold occurrences in Mali are carried out by the following companies:
RandGold Resources - on the right bank of the Faleme River, along the Kedugu-Kenieba ore-controlling faults, especially in the areas of the Lulo deposits, as well as in the Bagoe region, near the Morila deposit;
Axmin Inc. - north of the Lulo deposit;
Resolute Mining - in the Bagoy area, in the vicinity of the Saima (Siam) deposit, where the promising Finkolo deposit is being studied;
Avnel Mining - in the area of the Kalana deposit (Bale river basin);
African Gold Group Inc. - in the ore-placer area of Kangaba.
In addition to those listed, exploration for gold is carried out by Glencor Mining plc, Great Quest Metals Ltd., Cluff Gold plc, etc.
Mali's domestic consumption of gold is very low, with 100-200 kg of precious metal per year being used to make jewelry. The industrial use of gold is negligible due to the absence of a machine and instrument-making industry. Almost all of the gold produced is exported to English-speaking countries.
Thus, there are rather high prospects for discovering new gold deposits in Mali, primarily within the Falem gold ore belt, as well as in the Bagoe gold ore region, where the largest Morila gold deposit is being exploited (residual reserves - 180 tons, extracted gold - more than 120 tons) , as well as a large deposit of low-grade ores in Siam with the sum of reserves and extracted gold of more than 160 tons. gold.
bauxites
The identified bauxite resources in Mali, according to our estimate as of January 1, 2007, amount to about 2 billion tons (2.7% of world resources); As of the beginning of 2000, the identified bauxite resources of Mali amounted to 980 million tons, of which 520 million tons were measured (mesured categories).
The southwestern part of Mali, bordering Guinea and Senegal, is located within the eastern outskirts of the world's largest bauxite-bearing province, Phuta Jalon Mandingo. Lateritic bauxite deposits are located on the surface of the plateau and represent the lateritic weathering crust of the Eocene age, developed mainly after Mesozoic dolerites. Gibbsite bauxites with an average content of alumina (Al2O3) 45%, silica (SiO2) - 3-10%. Some of them can be classified as medium-quality ores, but most of them are low-quality ores with a high iron content (25-30% Fe2O3) and less than 40% Al2O3 and more than 10% SiO2.
In the 1960s, exploration work (geological exploration) for bauxite in Mali was carried out by French geologists who discovered about 40 deposits and ore occurrences of bauxite, grouped into six groups: East Bamako (East Bamako), West Bamako (West Bamako), Baleya (Baleya), West Bafinge, Kenyeba and Falea. The largest deposits are: Kayes, in the Kenieba group - Dombia, in the Baleya group - Gangaran, Kubaya and Sitaouma, in the West Bamako group - Sokorourou, Kourouko ), Uro-Nena, Koulala, Kenyelando and Sandam-Bakourou.
British exploration company Central African Mining & Exploration Co plc (CAMEC) is re-evaluating bauxite deposits and occurrences in Mali. The company believes that the resource potential for bauxite in Mali is much higher than previously estimated. The company has discovered a new bauxite deposit, Sikasso North, 100 km north-north-west of the city of Sikasso in the south of the country, near the border with Burkino Faso.
The company has a license for the exploration and production of bauxite in the areas of three projects. These are the Falea Project with an area of 300 sq. km in the southwest of Mali, near the border with Guinea and Senegal, where the company discovered about 20 large bauxite-bearing plateaus; the Bamako West Project with an area of 2,500 sq. km; and the Sikasso North Project with an area of 1,200 sq. km. Under the Sikaso project, prospecting work was carried out and a plateau of 100 sq. km with a well-developed bauxite profile was discovered; bauxite layer thickness up to 15 m; estimated resources - about 3 billion tons of bauxite.
CAMEC has established a joint venture with Mali Mining House (CAMEC - 80%) to explore and develop Mali's bauxite deposits.
In 2006, Butty, Herinckx and Partners (BH&P) carried out a conceptual analysis of the development opportunities for the alumina industry in Mali. The results of the analysis showed that the Falea project in southeast Mali has the greatest potential; this is due to the fact that just 60 km to the south-east, in Senegal, the Faleme iron ore project is being implemented, which involves the extraction of 14 million tons / year of iron ore, for the transport of which the necessary transport infrastructure will be built.
According to earlier studies by the French companies Pechiney and BRGM, bauxite resources identified within the Falea project area, on the Sitadina and Koumassi plateaus, according to drilling data on a network of 400 x 400 m, amounted to (with a cut-off Al2O3 content of 45%) 120 million tons with an average content of 47.5% alumina and 3.6% silica.
In November 2007, CAMEC reported encouraging results from its bauxite exploration work in Mali. According to preliminary estimates, the company has identified another 150-200 million tons of high-quality bauxite.
CAMEC planned to complete the prospecting and appraisal stage of exploration by the end of 2007 and start exploration drilling in 2008.
Mali has significant potential for the development of bauxite deposits, which has so far been held back by underdeveloped infrastructure.
Hydrocarbon raw materials
Despite intensive prospecting and exploration, oil deposits in Mali have not yet been discovered.
There are also no oil refineries in the country. The demand for petroleum products is met through imports. In 2006, 0.22 million tons of oil products were imported, mainly heating oil and diesel fuel.
No gas fields have been discovered in Mali. Gas is not consumed in the country.
The oil and gas prospects of Mali are associated with the possibly oil and gas bearing basins (OPGB) of Taoudeni in the northwest of the country, Mali Niger and Gao in the northeast, and Nara in its central part. Potential oil and gas source rocks are Silurian graptolitic clay shales.
The first two basins are located on the territory of the country only partially and have a fairly simple synclinal structure. The Taoudeni basin is composed of carbonate rocks of the Upper Proterozoic (2000 m), sandy-argillaceous deposits of the Paleozoic (up to 3000 m) and Mesozoic-Cenozoic (300 m). Potential collectors can be Middle Devonian reef limestones, Lower Devonian and Ordovician sandstones.
The Mali-Niger VNGB is composed of sandy-argillaceous rocks of the Lower Paleozoic (700 m) and Mesozoic-Cenozoic (up to 2800 m) of predominantly continental genesis.
The VNGB of Gao and Nara are Cretaceous rift basins typical of the African continent. They are formed by a series of parallel asymmetric grabens and semigrabens bounded by consedimentary vertical faults. In the most submerged parts, the thickness of sedimentary infill, represented by Mesozoic and Cenozoic continental deposits, exceeds 5 thousand m.
Exploration for oil and gas in the country began in the mid-1950s. Geological, gravimetric and aeromagnetic surveys and seismic surveys were carried out in the Taoudeni basin. In 1962-1963 Soviet geophysicists carried out an aeromagnetic survey and built a map of the basement at a scale of 1: 2,500,000. In 1982, the Yarba-1 well (Yarba-1) was drilled by the Elf Aquitaine company with a depth of 2294 m; In 1985, ESSO drilled the Atouila-1 well at a depth of 2324 m. Oil and gas shows were not observed in the wells.
In the Mali-Niger basin in the 50s, French companies carried out regional geophysical work. In 1967-70. with the technical assistance of the Ministry of Geology of the USSR, detailed seismic and electrical surveys were carried out and two exploratory wells were drilled: In Tamat-1 (In Tamat-1) with a depth of 1170 m and Tahabanat-1 (Tahabanat-1) with a depth of 2011 m. Both wells reached the basement; the section of sedimentary rocks discovered by them turned out to be unfavorable for oil and gas formation.
In the Gao graben in 1979, Elf Aquitaine drilled the Ansongo-1 well at a depth of 1697 m, which exposed the basement.
In order to attract foreign oil companies to work in the country, the government of Mali in 2002 prepared a new version of the oil legislation adopted in 1969 and at the end of 2004 created a new regulatory body - the Authority for the Promotion of Oil Research to Mali (AUREP). The prospective territories were divided into 25 blocks. Currently, nine of them are in the distributed fund.
Australian Baraka Petroleum Ltd. in five blocks belonging to it (1, 2, 3, 4 and 9) with a total area of 193.2 thousand sq. km in 2006-2007. conducted research from the air (magnetic and gravity exploration, radiometry). At the end of 2007 it was planned to start seismic surveys. In November 2006, the Italian Eni S.P.A. became the operator of this project. The equity participation in the project is distributed as follows: Eni S.P.A. - 50%, Sonatrach - 25%, Baraka Petroleum Ltd. - 18.75%, Baraka Mali Ventures Ltd. - 6.25%.
Block 5 of the Taudeni Basin has been in the possession of the Nigerian Natural Resources group Inc since July 2007.
In the Gao graben (blocks 7 and 11), Canadian Heritage Oil plans to conduct a $5 million 2D seismic survey over the next two years and drill one well at least 2,000 m deep ($8 million).
In the Nara graben, since July 2007, block 24 has been owned by the Chinese Tink Petroleum Corporation, which plans to spend $17.5 million on prospecting and exploration.
Uranus
Mali today is one of the most promising countries for the search for uranium in Africa. The prospects are due to the commonality of the geological structure of the territory of Mali with a vast area of neighboring Niger, where large uranium ore deposits are located.
There is no reliable information about the reserves of uranium ores in Mali. According to some data, the predicted uranium resources are estimated at 100 thousand tons of U3O8 with an average grade of uranium in ores of 0.085%.
In the north-east of the country, in the region of the Adrar-Ifaras mountain range, in the area of distribution of Archean-Proterozoic metamorphic rocks, to the west of the Tim Mersoi uranium ore region being developed in neighboring Niger, the Kidal and Tesalit uranium ore deposits are known (a small amount of information allows call these objects deposits with a degree of conventionality). The predicted uranium resources of each of these objects are estimated at 8.5 thousand tons. In the Adrar-Ifaras area, several more uranium-bearing sites were identified, similar in geological structure to the Kidal and Tesalit deposits.
To the south-west of Adrar-Ifaras, in the Tilemsi region, over an area of more than 19,000 square kilometers, several radiometric anomalies and uranium ore occurrences have been discovered. A promising manifestation of Samit was also found there.
In the southwest of Mali, 20 km north of the border with Guinea, the Falea copper-uranium deposit is being explored, in the ores of which the uranium content is 0.1%.
Prospecting and exploration work in Mali is carried out by Bayswater Uranium Corp., Northern Canadian Uranium Inc., Delta Exploration Inc., Rockgate Capital Corp., Oklo Uranium Ltd.
There is no official data on uranium mining in Mali. However, according to press reports, the northeastern region of Mali and the adjacent territory of Niger, which are controlled by the Tuareg, may be areas of illegal uranium mining.
The geological prerequisites for the search for uranium deposits in Mali are quite favorable. Unfortunately, the unstable political situation in the region does not allow us to consider Mali as a serious supplier of uranium raw materials in the short term.
Diamonds
As of January 1, 2006, Mali's diamond resources were estimated at 1 million carats.
In the Kenieba kimberlite field, from the alluvium of the tributaries of the Faleme River, diamonds have long been found along with gold, and a significant part of them were very large in size and of high quality. So, among the currently known stones with a total weight of 1300 carats there are diamonds of 232, 138, 102, 98 carats. Previously, 22 kimberlite pipes were discovered here by DFMG, Selection Trust, Sonarem and Soviet geologists; however, according to the results of testing, they were either very weakly diamondiferous or did not contain diamonds at all.
In mid-1995, two firms - members of the Ashton group of companies: Mink Minerals (49%) and Ashton West Africa Pty Ltd (51%) - formed Mali Diamond Exploration BV (MADE), which received the rights to the Kenieba concession of 36 thousand square meters. sq. km and carried out a complex of prospecting for diamonds. 23 areas were identified with minerals-indicators of diamond content (MI), as well as macrodiamonds. In a paleoplacer believed to have been eroded from the 19 ha Cirque pipe, the company found a 70.62 carat diamond. In addition, several macrodiamonds were discovered in three different areas of the concession area. The two largest, weighing 1 and 0.5 carats, were found in the Faraba region. In the company's opinion, these features make it possible to identify four new sectors in the concession area that are promising for the discovery of kimberlite bodies.
In March 1998, the results of verification of the first, largest aeromagnetic anomaly Kasama (Kassama) with an area of about 45 hectares were announced. A borehole drilled on it uncovered kimberlite, which, obviously, is the pipe of the explosion. The upper part of the borehole section is represented by sedimentary rocks of the crater facies, below which “tuff kimberlite” (25 m), kimberlite breccia (49 m) and massive kimberlite breccia of diatreme facies with lapilli (more than 57 m) occur. According to the company's geologists, "the largest kimberlite pipe in West Africa" has been discovered. However, the enrichment of the core showed that the content of diamonds in kimberlites is very low, and work was stopped at this point.
Geological exploration for diamonds and their extraction are not currently underway.
Iron
As of January 1, 2000, the total reserves of iron ore in Mali amounted to 815 million tons, proven reserves - 431 million tons.
In the southwestern part of Mali, in the basins of the Bafing and Bakoy rivers, there is the Bafing-Bakoy iron ore basin with an area of more than 1000 sq. km. The ore type is oolitic hematite sandstones and chlorite-hematite sandstones. The thickness of the productive horizon is from 1.5 to 7.5 m. The iron content in ores is about 40%. In weathering zones with hydrogoethite, the iron content rises to 50%.
In the middle part of the basin, the Bale deposit is explored, located 100 km south-west of the city of Kita and consisting of five sections separated by erosion with a total area of 100 sq. km. Ores come to the surface. The secondary enrichment zone has a thickness of about 4 m. Measured and established resources (measured + indicated resources) of the deposit are 100 million tons with an iron content in ores of 51-57%. The forecast resources of the deposit are estimated at 3-4 billion tons.
A more detailed study of the deposit is required for the final assessment.
The iron ore industry in Mali will have development prospects only if the metallurgical processing of ores is established within the country, which is unrealistic in the near future. In the foreign market, Malian ores will never be competitive due to the need to transport them more than 600 km to seaports.
Lead and zinc
The explored reserves of lead and zinc in Mali are located in the only small vein lead-zinc deposit Tessalit. Here, 1.7 million tons of ore containing 5-10% zinc, about 2% lead and 1 g/t gold are enclosed in vein bodies of quartz-sulfide composition. Lead reserves are estimated at 34 thousand tons, zinc - at 120 thousand tons. The deposit is currently not being developed.
Phosphorus
The resources of phosphorite ores in Mali are estimated at 16 million tons of P2O5. The total reserves are 7 million tons of P2O5, confirmed - 3 million tons. Three small deposits of phosphorites are known in the country: Gao (Gao), Tamagilel (Tamaguilel) and Tilemsi (Tilemsi), located to the northeast of the city of Gao.
Small production (about 3 thousand tons per year) is carried out at the Gao field, most likely for local needs.
Manganese
All identified resources of manganese ores in Mali (10 million tons) are located in the only Ansongo deposit. It is located in the eastern part of the country, near the city of Ansongo, 95 km from the city of Gao and about 110 km northeast of the Tambao field of the same type in Burkina Faso. The deposit belongs to the geological-industrial type of weathering crusts of manganese-containing metamorphosed silicate rocks (gondites). Lenticular manganese deposits have a length of more than 30 km. Resources of manganese ores in 2000 were estimated at 10 million tons; confirmed reserves, according to our estimates, amount to 8 million tons. The average content of manganese in ordinary ores is 42%, in rich ones - 50-55%. The main ore minerals are psilomelane and pyrolusite.
The deposit is mothballed.
Tin
Mali's tin resources, according to 1998 data, are estimated at 500 tons. There are no reserves. Geological exploration for tin is not carried out.
Data on the consumption of tin products and their imports are not available.
Findings:
The main wealth of Mali is gold. The country has fairly high prospects for discovering new deposits, primarily within the Falem gold ore belt, as well as in the Bagoe gold ore region, where the largest gold ore deposit, Morila, is being exploited. Therefore, in the short term, these territories may be of interest to Russian gold mining companies.
To assess the prospects for the development of insufficiently explored deposits of bauxite, uranium, diamonds, rare metals and non-metallic ores, additional analysis is necessary.
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At first glance, Mali seems like an unlikely place where a NATO country led by the neo-colonial French government of socialist President François Hollande will launch what some are calling a new Thirty Years War on Terrorism.
Mali is a country of about 12 million, three and a half times the size of Germany, landlocked, located largely in the Sahara desert in the center of West Africa, bordered by Algeria in the north, Mauritania in the west, Senegal, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Niger in the south. Shortly before all these US-led attempts to destabilize the situation began, my acquaintances spent some time in Mali. They called Mali one of the most peaceful and beautiful places on the ground. Ninety percent of the country's population are Muslims of various persuasions. Mali has subsistence agriculture, and adult illiteracy is nearly 50%. However, this country has suddenly found itself at the center of a new global "war on terror".
On January 20, British Prime Minister David Cameron announced his country's strange determination to dedicate itself to fighting the "threat of terrorism" in Mali and North Africa. Cameron said: “We will react within years and even decades, not months, and such a reaction is required that ... has absolutely iron decisions ...” Great Britain during its colonial heyday was never interested in Mali. Until independence in 1960, Mali was a French colony.
French military aboard an American transport plane before taking off for Mali from Marseille on January 24, 2013. (Photo by Claude Paris | Reuters):
On January 11, after more than a year of behind-the-scenes pressure on neighboring Algeria to force it to invade neighboring Mali, Hollande, with US support, decided on direct French military intervention. His government launched a series of air strikes against rebels in northern Mali - against a fanatical Salafist gang of jihadist thugs calling themselves Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). The reason for the prompt actions of the French was a military move by a small group of Islamic jihadists from the Tuareg Ansar al-Din, associated with the big AQIM. On January 10, Ansar al-Din, supported by other Islamist groups, attacked the southern city of Konna. It was the first time since the Tuareg uprising in early 2012 that jihadist rebels had moved beyond the traditional Tuareg territory in the northern desert into Islamic law in southern Mali.
As French journalist Thierry Meyssan noted, the French troops were remarkably well prepared: “The transitional president, Dioncounda Traore, declared a state of emergency and called on France for help. Paris intervened within hours to prevent the fall of the Bamako capital. The Elysee Palace has already far-sightedly deployed in Mali the 1st Marine Parachute Regiment (“colonists”) and the 13th Parachute Dragoon Regiment, helicopters from COS (Special Operations Forces Command), three Mirage 2000D, two Mirage F-1 , three C135s, one Hercules C130 and one C160 Transall." A convenient coincidence, of course.
By January 21, US Air Force transport planes had begun delivering hundreds of French elite soldiers and military equipment to Mali, ostensibly to reverse the out-of-control terrorist advance south towards Mali's capital. French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters the number of troops in Mali had reached 2,000, adding that "about 4,000 troops will be mobilized for this operation."
French Mirage fighters landed at Bamako airport, Mali, January 17, 2013. (Photo by Jeremy Lempin, ECPAD | AP):
But there are sure signs that French intentions in Mali are far from humanitarian goals. In a television interview with France 5, Le Drian casually admitted: “The goal is the total conquest of Mali. We will not leave a single pocket of resistance.” And President François Hollande declared that French troops would remain in the region long enough "to defeat terrorism." The United States, Canada, Great Britain, Belgium, Germany and Denmark all said they supported the French operation against Mali.
Mali itself, like much of the rest of Africa, is rich in raw materials. It has large reserves of gold, uranium, and most recently (although Western oil companies are trying to hide this) oil has been discovered, a lot of oil. The French chose to ignore Mali's vast resources by supporting subsistence agriculture in this poor country. During the reign of the ousted democratically elected President Amadou Toumani Touré, for the first time, the government began systematic mapping of the vast underground wealth. Malian soil contains copper, uranium, phosphates, bauxite, precious stones and, in particular, a large percentage of gold, in addition to oil and gas, according to previous mining minister Mamadou Igor Diarra. Thus, Mali is one of the most resource-rich countries in the world. The country is already one of the leading gold miners directly after South Africa and Ghana. Two-thirds of France's electricity comes from nuclear, and new sources of uranium are significant. France is currently attracting significant imports of uranium from neighboring Niger.
Now the picture gets a little more complicated.
Bullet hole in a Tuareg rebel car. It was destroyed from the air by French aircraft. At least that's what the French say. Mali, January 24, 2013. (Photo by Eric Gaillard | Reuters):
According to usually reliable sources from former US military experts who are intimately familiar with the situation and who speak on condition of anonymity, US and NATO special forces were in fact training the same groups of "terrorists" whose activities now serve to justify a US-backed neo-colonial invasion of Mali by France. The main question is why did Washington and Paris train the terrorists they now operate against to destroy them in the "war on terror"? Were they really surprised by the lack of loyalty of their students? And what is behind the American AFRICOM-backed French conquest of Mali?
Remains of Islamist militant cars. On January 18-19, 2013, French and Malian troops took control of the cities of Dibali and Kona. (Photo by Jerome Delay | AP):
The truth about what is really happening in Mali, AFRICOM and NATO countries, in particular France, is like the geopolitical "Victoria's Secret" - what you think you see is definitely not what you will get.
We have been told repeatedly in recent months that some organization calling itself al-Qaeda, formally accused by the US government of being responsible for the collapse of the three towers of the World Trade Center and for making a gaping hole in the wall of the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, has regrouped.
According to popular media articles and statements by various NATO government officials, Osama bin Laden's original group, hiding what we must believe is somewhere in the Tora Bora Caves in Afghanistan, appears to have adopted a modern business model and is distributing official the McDonald's of Terrorist al-Qaeda franchise, from al-Qaeda in Iraq to the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group in Libya, and now al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
I have even heard that a new "official" al-Qaeda franchise has just been issued by the DRCCAQ or "Christian (sic!) Al-Qaeda of the Democratic Republic of the Congo". Such a somersault, which resembles one equally strange sect called "Jews for Jesus", created by hippies during the Vietnam War. Maybe the architects of all these dark groups have so little imagination?
French military personnel patrol the streets on foot and in armored personnel carriers in the city of Nyono in central Mali on January 20, 2013. (Photo by Jerome Delay | AP):
If you believe the official version, then Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM for short) is to blame for all the troubles of Mali. The enigmatic AQIM itself is actually the product of several behind-the-scenes works. It was originally based in Algiers across the border from Mali and called itself the "Salafist Group of Warriors and Preachers" (GSPC according to its French name).
In 2006, the head of al-Qaeda, in the absence of Osama bin Laden, the Egyptian jihadist Ayman al-Zawahiri, publicly announced the granting of a franchise to al-Qaeda by the Algerian GSPC. The name was changed to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and over the past two years, Algerian counter-terrorism operations have driven them across the desert across the border into northern Mali. AQIM is little more than a heavily armed criminal group that derives its money from the transit of South American cocaine through Africa to Europe or from human trafficking.
A year later, in 2007, the enterprising al-Zawahiri added another brick to his gangster chain when he officially announced the merger between the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) and AQIM.
The LIFG was formed by a Libyan jihadist named Abdelhakim Belhadj. Belhadj was trained by the CIA in the 1980s as part of the US-funded mujahideen training in Afghanistan along with another CIA trainee named Osama bin Laden. In essence, as journalist Pepe Escobar points out, “since then, for all practical purposes, LIFG and AQIM have been one and the same, and Belhadj was and is his [Osama] emir.”
Local residents are not particularly opposed to the presence of the French military, waving their hands. Dibali city, January 24, 2013. (Photo by Eric Gaillard | Reuters):
It got even more interesting when we discovered that the people of Belhadj, who, according to Escobar, were at the forefront of the Berber militia from the mountains southwest of Tripoli, the so-called "Tripoli Brigades", were secretly trained for two months by the US spenaz .
The LIFG played a key role in bringing down Gaddafi, turning Libya today into what one observer describes as "the world's largest open-air gun market." Those same weapons are reportedly flowing from Benghazi to Mali and various other targeted destabilization hotspots. This includes, as ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently confirmed, weapons are transported by sea from Libya to Turkey, where they are handed over to foreign terrorist mercenaries sent to Syria to fuel its destruction.
So what does this unusual conglomerate, the globalized terrorist organization LIFG-GPSC-AQIM, do, what are their goals in Mali and beyond, and how does this serve the goals of AFRICOM and the French?
Near a van at a checkpoint in Nyono on January 21, 2013. (Photo by Joe Penney | Reuters):
Events in previously peaceful, democratic Mali began to get very strange on March 22, 2012, when Malian President Amadou Toumani Touré was ousted and sent into exile in a military coup just one month before the scheduled presidential election. Touré had previously established a multi-party democratic system. According to an AFRICOM spokesman, the leader of the coup, Captain Amadou Aya Sanogo, received US military training at Fort Benning, Georgia and the Marine Corps base at Quantico, Virginia. Sanogo argued that a military coup was necessary because the Touré government was not doing enough to put down the Tuareg uprising in northern Mali.
As Meyssan points out, the March 2012 military coup against Toure was suspect in every way. An unknown group called the CNRDRE (in English: National Committee for the Restoration of Democracy and the Restoration of the State) overthrew Toure and declared its intention to restore law in Mali and order in the north.
“This led to a lot of confusion,” continues Meisan, “because the putschists were not able to explain how they would have improved the situation by their actions. The overthrow of the president was even stranger, since the presidential elections were due in five weeks and the outgoing president could no longer take part in them. The CNRDRE is made up of officers who have been trained in the United States. They halted the electoral process and handed over power to one of their candidates, who turned out to be the Francophile Dionkunda Traore. This sleight of hand was legitimized by ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States), whose president is none other than Alassane Ouattara, who was brought to power in Côte d'Ivoire by the French army a year earlier."
Alassane Ouattara, educated in economics in the US, is a former senior IMF official who defeated a rival in the 2011 presidential election with French military assistance. For his job, he owes the French special forces.
At the time of this military coup, the concern in question came from the ethnic Tuareg tribe, a secular, nomadic pastoral group who demanded independence from Mali in early 2012.
The Tuareg uprising was rumored to be armed and financed by France, which at one time repatriated the Tuareg who had previously participated in the hostilities in Libya in order to split northern Mali along the border with Algeria from the rest of the country and declare it under Sharia rule. This went on from January to April 2012, exactly until the militant Tuareg nomads moved away from their nomad camps in the central Sahara and the borders of the Sahel - a huge desert between Libya and Algeria, Mali and Niger. This allowed the Algerian-Libyan LIFG/AQIM and their associates from the jihadist Ansar al-Din to do the dirty work for Paris.
The French found in the courtyard of the house ammunition belonging, as they think, to the Tuareg rebels with whom they are fighting. City of Dibali, January 23, 2013. (Photo by Joe Penney | Reuters):
In 2012, in their struggle for independence from Mali, the Tuareg forged a dubious alliance with the jihadist AQIM. Both groups briefly allied with Ansar al-Din, another Islamist organization led by Iyad Ag Khali. Ansar al-Din is believed to have ties to AQIM, which is led by Ag Khali's cousin, Hamad Ag Khama. Ansar al-Din wants the introduction of strict Sharia law throughout Mali.
The three main groups came together briefly as the country was thrown into chaos following a military coup in March 2012. The coup leader was Amadou Aya Sanogo, who received US military training at Fort Benning, Georgia and the Marine Corps base at Quantico, Virginia. In a bizarre game of events, despite assurances that the coup was caused by the failure of the civilian government to contain the uprising in the north, within just ten days of Senoi taking office, the Malian military lost control of the regional capitals of Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu. Reuters described this farcical coup as "a spectacular crossbow."
The anti-constitutional coup in Mali triggered heavy sanctions against the central military government. Mali's membership in the African Union was suspended; stopped assistance from the World Bank and the African Development Bank. The US has halved the $140 million it sends each year to support the country, making sure that the chaos created in Mali makes it virtually impossible for the government to respond to the growing loss of territory in the north.
The French meet an unknown car at a checkpoint in the city of Dybali, January 21, 2013. (Photo by Joe Penney | Reuters):
Part IV: Terror-Antiterror
Everything that followed was as if written off from a page torn out of a rebel textbook by British Brigadier General Frank E. Kitson, who conducted British Mau Mau operations in Kenya in the 1950s. A jihadist uprising in the north and a simultaneous military coup in the capital led to a situation in which Mali was immediately isolated and subjected to economic sanctions.
Acting with indecent haste, the United States and France, which control ECOWAS, demanded that the coup leaders restore civilian rule. On March 26, the US cut off all military aid to this poor country, ensuring maximum chaos while the jihadists made their main push to the south. Then at the April 2 summit in Dakar, ECOWAS members closed their borders to landlocked Mali and imposed heavy sanctions, including cutting off access to a regional bank, all but guaranteeing that Mali would soon be unable to pay for essential supplies, including gasoline.
The same military that "trains" terrorists also trains "anti-terrorists." This seems like a bizarre political contradiction only until we get the gist of the US-British methods of irregular warfare that have been in active use since the early 1950s.
This method was originally called "Low Intensity Warfare" by Frank E. Kitson. “Low-intensity warfare,” as the book of the same name calls it, includes the use of forgery, the infiltration of double agents, provocateurs, and the use of defectors in popular movements such as the colonial independence struggles of the 1950s.
This method is sometimes referred to as "Gang/Counter-Gang". Its essence is that orchestrators from the secret services or the military occupation forces, whether it be the British army in Kenya or the CIA in Afghanistan, de facto control the actions of both sides in the internal conflict, creating small civil wars or wars between gangs in order to disperse the real legitimate movement and create a pretext for the introduction of an external military force, what the US has now hypocritically renamed "peacekeeping operations".
Around the foreign military. At present, the number of French troops in Mali is almost 4,000. (Photo by Jerome Delay | AP):
In his extended course on American military history since the Vietnam Intervention, Grant of the US Air War College openly states that "Low-Intensity Warfare" is "war in other words."
For the first time in more than half a century, we are beginning to recognize the bloody trail of a not-so-well-disguised French colonization of the former French Africa, this time using al-Qaeda terror as a springboard to justify a military presence. French troops are likely to stay behind to help Mali in a "peacekeeping operation". The US fully supports France in its AFRICOM. And al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is making a full-scale NATO military intervention possible with its statements.
Washington claimed to have been taken by surprise by the military coup. According to press reports, a confidential internal audit at AFRICOM concluded in July 2012 concluded that the coup had unfolded too quickly for US intelligence analysts to detect any clear warning signs. “The coup in Mali progressed very quickly and with very little warning,” said AFRICOM spokesman Colonel Tom Davies. “The spark broke out in the ranks of the junior officers who would eventually overthrow the government, and not at a higher level where the warning signs might have been more easily seen.” Very doubtful. In a confidential interview with The New York Times, one Special Operations Forces officer disagreed, saying, “This has been brewing for five years. Analysts were confident in their assumptions and did not see much change, while a lot of weapons and more Islamic militants were coming from Libya ... "
French military at a combat post. City of Sevare, Mali, January 24, 2013. (Photo by Jerome Delay | AP):
More accurately, it seems that AFRICOM has carefully nurtured the crisis for five years since the operation began in late 2007. For the Pentagon, Mali is nothing more than another brick in the militarization of all of Africa, using third-party forces (France) as a conductor for dirty work. The main goal is to capture such strategic resources as ore, oil, gas, uranium, gold or iron. The strategic target is China and the rapidly growing Chinese business presence in Africa in recent decades. The goal of AFRICOM is to push China out of Africa, or at the very least to cripple its independent access to African resources. An economically independent China, according to various offices in the neo-conservative think tanks of the Pentagon and Washington, can become a politically independent China. God forbid! So they believe.
Malian soldiers in the city of Gao, February 21, 2013. (Photo by Frederic Lafargue | AFP | Getty Images):
The operation in Mali is just the tip of a huge African iceberg. AFRICOM, the US Africa Command, was created under President George W. Bush in late 2007. Its main goal is to combat the rapidly growing Chinese economic and political influence in Africa. Washington sounded the alarm in October 2006 when the Chinese President convened a historic summit in Beijing, the China-Africa Cooperation Forum (FOCAC), which brought about fifty African heads of state and ministers to the Chinese capital. In 2008, ahead of a 12-day trip to eight countries in Africa (the third such trip since taking office in 2003), President Hu Jintao announced a three-year, $3 billion concessional loan program and expanded aid to Africa. The funds added to the $3 billion in loans and $2 billion in export credits Hu announced earlier.
Trade between China and African countries exploded over the next four years, while French and American influence on the "dark continent" waned. China's trade with Africa reached $166 billion in 2011, according to Chinese statistics, and African exports to China (primarily resources for Chinese industry) have risen from $5.6 billion to $93 billion over the past ten years. In July 2012, China offered $20 billion in loans to African countries over the next three years, doubling the amount pledged in the previous three years.
Getting AFRICOM operational as soon as possible has become a pressing geopolitical priority for Washington. AFRICOM began operations on October 1, 2008 from its headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. Since the Bush-Cheney administration signed the directive creating AFRICOM in February 2007, it was a direct response to China's successful African economic diplomacy.
AFRICOM defines its mission as follows: "Africa Command has administrative responsibility for US military support for US government policies in Africa to include military engagement with the militaries of 53 African nations." They allow working closely with US embassies and the State Department throughout Africa, an unusual admission that also includes USAID: “US Africa Command provides personnel and logistical support to State Department-funded operations. Personnel The command is working closely with US embassies in Africa to coordinate training programs to improve African countries' ability to provide security."
A shopkeeper tries to extinguish his shop at the main market in Gao February 23, 2013. The shop was destroyed during fighting between the Islamists on one side and the French and Malian armies on the other. (Photo by Joe Penney | Reuters):
Speaking to the International Peace Operations Association in Washington, DC, on October 27, 2008, General Ward Keep, AFRICOM Commander, defined the command's mission as "[to] work with other US government agencies and international partners on sustainable security commitments through joint military programs, military sponsorship activities and other military operations aimed at strengthening the stability and security of the African continent in support of US foreign policy.
Various sources in Washington have openly stated that AFRICOM was created to combat China's growing presence in Africa, as well as China's increasing success in securing long-term economic commodity agreements with African countries in exchange for Chinese aid, as well as production sharing agreements and royalties. According to informed sources, the Chinese were much more cunning. Instead of offering austerity and economic chaos, as the West does through the IMF, China is offering big loans, soft loans to build roads and schools to build goodwill.
Dr. J. Peter Pham, a leading Washington insider and adviser to the State Department and the US Department of Defense, says openly that among the goals of AFRICOM is the goal of “protecting access to hydrocarbons and other strategic resources which are abundant in Africa… a challenge that includes securing these natural resources from vulnerability and ensuring that no other interested third parties, such as China, India, Japan or Russia, are granted monopolies or benefits.”
A market burned down during the fighting in the city of Gao, February 24, 2013. (Photo by Joel Saget | AFP | Getty Images):
Speaking before the US Congress in support of the creation of AFRICOM in 2007, Pham, who is closely associated with the neo-conservative think tank Foundation for Democracy, stated:
“This natural wealth makes Africa an attractive target for the attention of the People's Republic of China, whose vibrant economy has been growing at an average of 9 percent per year over the past two decades, has an almost insatiable need for oil, and also needs to use other natural resources to support growth. . China currently imports about 2.6 million barrels of crude oil a day, about half of its consumption; … about a third of these imports come from African sources … perhaps there is no other foreign region that competes with Africa as the object of sustainable strategic interests of Beijing in recent years …
… Many analysts expect Africa, especially the states along the oil-rich western coastline, to increasingly become the theater of strategic rivalry between the United States and its only real near-peer competitor on the world stage, China, as both countries seek to expand their influence and access resources.
To counter rising Chinese influence in Africa, Washington has enlisted an economically weak and politically deadlocked France, promising it support in some form of resurrection of its former African colonial empire. As is clear from the Franco-American use of al-Qaeda terrorists to overthrow Gaddafi in Libya and now wreak havoc in Mali, this strategy is to help spark ethnic wars and religious hatred between Berbers, Arabs and other tribes and communities in North America. Africa. Divide and rule.
It looks like they even co-opted the old French plan for direct control. In his groundbreaking analysis, Canadian geopolitical analyst and sociologist Mahdi Darius Nazemroya writes: “The plan used by Washington in the fight against terrorism under the Pan-Sahel Initiative speaks volumes. The range or area of activity for terrorists, within the borders of Algeria, Libya, Nigeria, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and according to Washington's designation, is very similar to the borders of the colonial territorial entity that France tried to create in Africa in 1957. Paris planned to support such an African entity in Central Western Sahara as a French department (province) directly linked to France, along with coastal Algeria."
The French called it the Organization commune des regions sahariennes (OCRS). It was located in the internal borders of the Sahel and the Sahara countries: Mali, Niger, Chad and Algeria. Paris used this formation to control resource-rich countries, use and exploit raw materials: oil, gas and uranium. The plans were thwarted during the Cold War. France was forced to dissolve the OCRS in 1962, due to the independence of Algeria and anti-colonial sentiment in Africa. Neo-colonial ambitions in Paris, however, have not gone away.
French military and Malian landscapes, February 7, 2013. (Photo by Pascal Guyot | AFP | Getty Images):
Nazemroya adds that Washington clearly had these energy-rich and resource-rich areas in mind when it stated which parts of Africa should be "cleared" of suspected terrorist cells and groups. At least now AFRICOM had a "plan" for its new African strategy. The French Institute of International Relations (Institut français des relations internationals, IFRI) openly discussed this connection between terrorists and energy-rich areas in a March 2011 report.
The map used by Washington in the fight against terrorism in the framework of the Pan-Sahel Initiative shows the field of activity of terrorists inside Algeria, Libya, Niger, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, in accordance with the instructions of Washington. The Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Initiative (TSCTI) was launched by the Pentagon in 2005. Mali, Chad, Mauritania, Niger have now joined Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco, Senegal, Nigeria, and Tunisia in the ring of military cooperation with the Pentagon. The Trans-Saharan Counterterrorism Initiative was transferred to AFRICOM Command on October 1, 2008.
The French make no secret of their dismay at growing Chinese influence in formerly French Africa. French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said in Abidjan last December that French companies must go on the offensive and fight the growing influence of rival China for a share in Africa's increasingly competitive markets. “Obviously China is more and more present in Africa… (French) companies that have the funds should go on the offensive. They must strengthen their presence. They have to fight,” Moscovici said during a trip to Côte d'Ivoire.
Obviously, Paris had in mind a military offensive to support the expected economic onslaught of French companies in Africa.
F.William Engdahl, author "A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Policy and the New World Order" and "The Full Spectrum of Domination: Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order"
Translation specially for the site "War and Peace"
French aircraft "Mirage" and "Rafale Jet Fighter" over Mali, February 4, 2013. (Photo by Anthony Jeuland, ECPAD, French Air Force):
Meanwhile, France is already planning to begin the withdrawal of its military contingent from Mali in March 2013. Although now the Serval operation is still ongoing.
Children climb the mausoleum of Emperor Askia Mohammad I, built in 1495. Gao, Mali, February 15, 2013. (Photo by Jerome Delay | AP):
French sappers examine a helicopter at Gao airport on February 9, 2013. (Photo by Pascal Guyot | AFP | Getty Images):
there are propaganda photos of Malian children with French flags, February 17, 2013. (Photo by Pascal Guyot | AP):
A Malian army soldier with an AK-47 in Gao, February 25, 2013. (Photo by Joel Saget | AFP | Getty Images):
Passengers and transport are checked in turn here. (Photo by Jerome Delay | AP):
French soldiers during the fighting with the Islamists in Gao, February 21, 2013. (Photo by Joe Penney | Reuters):
Fire! Malian military fire on Tuareg rebels, Gao, February 21, 2013. (Photo by Joe Penney | Reuters):
Such is life today in Mali, the jewel in the crown of Africa. (Photo by Jerome Delay | AP):
Malian teenagers and a French military convoy, Gao, February 19, 2013. (Photo by Jerome Delay | Reuters):
An extravagant French soldier next to an armored car on the street in Nyono, Mali. (Photo by Issouf Sanogo | AFP | Getty Images):
Well, today's news:
A strong explosion on Wednesday night thundered near the camp of French troops in the city of Kidal in northeastern Mali. No casualties or damage were reported.
The cause of the incident has not yet been established, reports RIA Novosti.
Islamist militants, driven out of towns in the north of the country by French and Malian forces, announced a new tactic in early February against the military, including mining roads and suicide attacks.
The French military acknowledged that a car bomb exploded in the Malian city of Kidal in the northeast of the country on Wednesday night. The relevant information was disseminated by a representative of the command of the French contingent.
A car bomb, driven by a suicide bomber, exploded at a checkpoint in the eastern part of the city, which is controlled by Tuareg rebels from the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), who wished to help the French military in the fight against Islamists in Mali. MNLA officials report that at least four people died as a result of the explosion.
The war continues...
We have already discussed with you. And I will remind you of the cultural heritage of MALI, while it is not yet buried under the ruins The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy is made -
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