France mentioned last week that it’s going to withdraw navy forces from Mali, where Paris has led a counterterrorism marketing campaign for almost a decade. It is a setback for the battle in opposition to Islamic extremism, but it’s also a victory for a Russian energy play in Africa.
“We can not stay militarily engaged with de facto authorities whose techniques and hidden targets we don’t share,” French President Emmanuel Macron mentioned Thursday of the Malian authorities. He added that the pullout of some 2,400 French troops might take as long as six months as France considers the place within the area to re-station forces preventing the Islamic State and al-Qaeda.
