During the past few weeks, the terrible violence in Mali and Algeria has shocked the world. The events have also reminded us how much of Africa is still French-speaking and how deep French influence still runs in those territories. More than this, the conflicts have reminded everybody else that the French still regard this part of their world as their backyard
The long French involvement in African affairs, from Rwanda to north Africa, has also been marked by bloody massacres and torture. This is especially true of Algeria, the largest country in Africa, first conquered by the French nearly 200 years ago. Algeria gained its independence in 1962, after a hard-fought war against France, notable for the use of terrorist tactics and torture on both sides. Poverty and terrorism are still ever-present in Algerian life. At the same time, as the focus of the Arab Spring shifts to north Africa, it is also shifting nearer to France, which has the largest Muslim population in Europe.
It's hardly surprising, then, that the French are becoming increasingly sensitive to changing moods in the Muslim world and especially Algeria. Indeed, this is not the first time that events in north Africa have threatened to spill over into France. In the 90s, when Algeria became a slaughterhouse and tens of thousands were killed in the dirty war between the government and Islamist insurgents, Paris was the chief target of Algerian extremists. In 1995, Abdelbaki Sahraoui, a moderate imam, was gunned down in northern Paris by the terrorist Groupe Islamique Armé (GIA). His death was followed by a swift succession of bombings on civilian targets in Paris that left eight dead and more than 100 wounded.
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