Nearly a month after launching an offensive in Mali to drive out Islamist extremists, France mulled the withdrawal of its troops on Thursday after asking the UN to prepare a peacekeeping force to take the baton.
France’s 28-day-old intervention has largely driven the al-Qaida-linked rebels, who controlled northern Mali for 10 months and had threatened to advance on the capital, to the remote mountains of the far northeast, along the Algerian border.
But French-led forces continue to come under attack in reclaimed territory, and with fears of a prolonged insurgency, Paris is keen to hand over the military burden.
The French defence ministry said on Thursday that the intervention in its former colony has already cost France 70 million euros ($95 million), with the figure rising by 2.7 million euros per day.
French defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the rebels had hit back at troops with rocket fire on Tuesday in Gao, the largest city in the north, and that patrols in reclaimed towns had encountered ‘residual jihadist groups who are still fighting’.
Le Drian said on Tuesday the French-led operation had so far killed ‘several hundred’ al-Qaida-linked militants.
‘This is a real war with significant losses but I’m not going to get into an accounting exercise,’ he said when asked about the toll.
France’s 28-day-old intervention has largely driven the al-Qaida-linked rebels, who controlled northern Mali for 10 months and had threatened to advance on the capital, to the remote mountains of the far northeast, along the Algerian border.
But French-led forces continue to come under attack in reclaimed territory, and with fears of a prolonged insurgency, Paris is keen to hand over the military burden.
The French defence ministry said on Thursday that the intervention in its former colony has already cost France 70 million euros ($95 million), with the figure rising by 2.7 million euros per day.
French defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the rebels had hit back at troops with rocket fire on Tuesday in Gao, the largest city in the north, and that patrols in reclaimed towns had encountered ‘residual jihadist groups who are still fighting’.
Le Drian said on Tuesday the French-led operation had so far killed ‘several hundred’ al-Qaida-linked militants.
‘This is a real war with significant losses but I’m not going to get into an accounting exercise,’ he said when asked about the toll.