Local officials in the Gao region of northern Mali are reporting at least six civilians have been confirmed killed in a series of French airstrikes in the area. The attack was the latest in a series of French strikes in the area, intended to keep Islamist groups from growing in Mali and neighboring countries.
France was quick to deny that the slain were civilians, saying everyone they hit was an “Islamist militant.” This has been common for French operations in recent years in Mali, where reports of civilian casualties are dismissed out of hand.
ISIS and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb both have a presence in and around Mali, and France has in recent years gotten involved in that fight. So far, this has led to some deadly battles and a lot of strikes, but nothing decisive.
Deadly attacks this month in neighboring Niger have raised concern that ISIS is looking to increase its activity in this part of the Sahel. Civilian deaths are raising concern that it will allow the Islamists to recruit more easily.
France is making the situation in Africa worse by making the airstrikes. That will cause more people in the Muslim world to support ISIS. France was a much calmer place before Nicholas Sarkozy, Francois Hollande and Emanuel Macron became presidents. At that time, France was the biggest critic of the Iraq War. No terrorist attacks took place in France at that time. After Obama became president, France moved closer to the US and Israel and became a leading puppet of those two countries.