France faces prolonged conflict in Mali

Mali is not the same as the French mission under NATO auspices in Afghanistan, which Mr Hollande is pushing to end quickly, said Rem Korteweg, of the CER."We have to look at the [region] as basically France’s backyard – at least that's the way they tend to like to see it. It’s very different from his approach to Afghanistan, because the interests are simply very different. The commercial interests are huge [in West Africa], especially if you look at the uranium mines.”