"There are at least four different armed rebel groups operating in the country’s north. The National Movement for the Liberation of Azwad, a Tuareg separatist group, claims it holds the town of Kidal. It used to be allied with the Islamist Ansar Dine.
"Now, according to AP, the separatists say they want to work with the French against some (but not all) Islamists. But they say they will still fight Mali’s army which, according to reports from Reuters, is said to be busy executing those who look Tuareg in towns liberated by the French. ...
"In November, [Niger’s Foreign Minister Mohamed] Bazoum told the foreign affairs commission of France’s National Assembly that Mali’s former president, deposed last year by the army, had given AQIM [Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb] free rein in the north in exchange for a share of the terror group’s lucrative kidnapping revenues.
"There. I hope all of this explains why we’re militarily involved (or, as the Harper government would say, not militarily involved) in this war."
Full article: Canadian troops drawn into Mali’s war, despite what Prime Minister Stephen Harper says.
