Is Algeria Paying for the Malian War?

Rawaa Kassem - Tunisia

The armed group that abducted foreign nationals working in British Petroleum Company, Southern Algeria threatens of the battle led by France in Mali and its neighboring countries. Spectators reiterated that the abduction will not be the last amidst this new chapter of "Western War on Terrorism".

Al-Qaeda threatened to strike France, and experts stressed that it does in fact possess this logistic ability, seeing that there are several Southwestern nationals in France and other countries in the ancient continent.

This explains Western and European countries' reluctance to support the unguaranteed French venture in fear becoming targets to Jihadist Fundamentalists.

Lack of Expertise

The uneven terrains of the Great African Sahara, the difficult transportation due to its quick sands, and lack of expertise regarding ground operations, make Europeans and Westerners averse in directly participating with French forces in the war.

However, they suffice to logistic support and at most sending troop trucks to transfer soldiers to the Malian capital Bamako.

France is truly alone (though it claims to be leading an alliance with the fragile African Army) in this ongoing battle that will apparently last for months, despite Algerian support of opening its airspace for French military planes and closing its borders with Mali.
The French President, therefore, had no choice but to address the Arab Gulf to fund its new war on the armed groups that run merrily in North Mali and threaten the capital Bamako.

The United Emirates was the foremost to support Hollande due to military and educational ties between the two countries, where French forces have military bases on Emirates lands and a branch of the Louvre Museum.
Moreover, strategic agendas Paris had plotted in Mali turned head over heels; Hollande and Sarkouzi had intensively gathered international support to declare this war and restore an area that France deems a part of its welfare in the coastal area.

Paris was given, however, permission from the UN's Security Council to militarily intervene, and underwent this war beside the African forces expert in the secrets of fighting in the desert.

However, the Islamic fundamentalist fighters' advances towards Bamako made France hasten to deploy land and air forces and counter these groups that are mastered in fighting in the vast Sahara.

Hefty Cost

Most observers in Southwestern Africa as well as Western Europe see that this war has a hefty financial, human, and political cost not only to France but to all neighboring countries. Probably the Western workers' abduction from the British Petroleum Company is the best example; Fundamentalist groups began targeting vital Algerian interests in oil excavations and exports.

A French Minister's declaration that Algeria opened its airspace to French military aircrafts will make Algeria a target for Jihadist organizations in North Mali. The foreign workers abduction in BP is but the beginning of targeting Algerian interests.

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