Mali rebels (picture by Presstv)

The government of Mali has been calling for a military intervention by the international community for months, in order to free the country's North from the grip of the Islamist groups. In december the UN Security Council approved Resolution 2085, establishing a one-year mandate to use "all necessary mesures" to oust terrorist groups and armed extremists.


These days Hollande's France authorized the direct military intervention, actually anticipating the time schedule set at the international level. Nonetheless the UN has reasserted its support to this decision, considering it in line with the directive of its own rules. French soldiers will soon be joined by contingents from Nigeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Togo, Senegal and Benin. Algeria furthermore has authorized the use of its air space to carry out the operations.


Can we talk about a French action of renewed colonialism? Or of socialist Hollande following the footprints of Sarkozy? Bernard Henry Lévy denied this stance, recalling "just war" as theorized by Grotius and Saint Thomas. Hollande opted for the use of force under extremed circumstances, in full compliance with the international legality and the United Nations, and made sure that "the operation has reasonable possibilities of success and the evil that it may cause would be of lesser impact than the evil prevented". 


This evil is to be prevented not only at the geopolitical level, where the strengthening of the Islamist cells of Mauritania and Niger or their linkage to the Nigerian Boko Haram was feared, but also at the humanitarian level, considering the violence perpetrated by Islamists in Northern Mali in the attempt to impose the sharia law.


Nevertheless we should not forget about the consequences of conflict: the 350,000 refugees leaving Mali last year have now almost doubled. Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Niger and Algeria are their main destinations. And the number still excludes the 230,000 refugees who are displaced internally. Not only women and children, but also Touaregs themselves. "If you are a Touareg, but you fail to enroll with the rebels and do not want the sharia law - say the members of the Tamashek ethnic group - you only have to flee".