war

Islamist rebels launched attack on the northern town of Gao, liberated from their control in January, but were repelled after two hours of fighting.

French president does not name 'terrorist leaders' killed in recent fighting in Mali, where a fourth member of French forces died on Wednesday.

Berlin favors a stronger euro, but France's president says the single currency’s heady rise on the foreign exchanges needs to be brought under control.

President Hollande has enjoyed acclaim for his handling of the French-led war in Mali, but a sterner challenge awaits, argues The Economist.

As in many recent conflicts involving Western intervention in other countries, France’s decision to wage war against Islamist militants in Mali has been accused by some as furthering its energy interests and economic investments, a suggestion that President François Hollande has unequivocally denied. Mediapart’s international affairs specialist Thomas Cantaloube finds the truth lies in between as he examines here just what are France's interests in the region. While Mali has quasi-inexistent mineral or energy resources, in the wider Sahel area, comprising the north of Mali, the east of Mauretania, Niger and parts of Algeria and Libya, the energy issue is significant.

French defence minister claims 'several hundred' Islamist militants have been killed since France launched an offensive against them in Mali last month.

French fighter jets began bombing missions over northern Mali on Sunday, where they are targeting Jihadist bases and supply depots, in the second - and what President François Hollande hopes will be the final – stage of France’s military campaign to oust the rebels from the West African country, and which began on January 11th. But while the war has so far been a political triumph for Hollande, the future is clouded by both the continuing delays in forming an adequate pan-African force to allow for a French withdrawal, and the new military challenges of fighting the rebels in mountainous terrain with which they are especially familiar. Lénaïg Bredoux reports.

France says a sandstorm is preventing its forces from entering the town of Kidal in northern Mali in their offensive against Islamist militants.

France says a sandstorm is preventing its forces from entering the town of Kidal in northern Mali in their offensive against Islamist militants.

French and Malian forces secure the northern Mali town of Gao, once an Islamist stronghold, and advance on to the key town of Timbuktu.

The French ‘military intervention’ that began in Mali on January 11th is also a war of words in which the socialist government has adopted semantics akin to neo-conservative rhetoric, argues Mediapart political correspondent Stéphane Alliès, who presents here some choice examples of ministerial sleight of tongue.

French troops' initial clashes have shown that the desert fighters are better trained and equipped than France had expected before intervention.

Desecration of graves of Germans killed in World War I and buried in a French cemetery clouds historic meeting.

As the 30th anniversary of the Falklands War approaches, the BBC reports on how a French arms technical team leant help to the Argentine junta.