Mali: heads role at the Quai d'Orsay

 by the end of February  Laurent Fabius replaced  the Deputy Director in charge Mali,Laurent Bigot. A few weeks earlier, Jean-Félix Paganon, Special Representative for Sahel, appointed in June 2012, has been replaced. And last October, Elisabeth Barbier, responsible for some of the Africa-Indian Ocean Division (DAOI) of the Quai d'Orsay, was ousted from her post due to incompatibility with the minister. She is now ambassador to South Africa.

The French military intervention seems to have acted as a catalyst for these changes which reflect a departure from the previously established positions in the  Africa division. Le Figaro notes the criticisms by Laurent Bigot condemning  Mali  for corruption and a sham democracy. He also said that Burkino Faso was also close to collapse. These statements probably did not go down well in Bamako and Ougadougou, Le Figaro reflects.

It cites a changeover from the traditonal French diplomatic approach to the Sahel and West Africa and  the new imperatives brought on by the French military intervention and the complexity of the problems facing the Sahel.Francois Hollande the article says prefers a multi dimensional approach and holds weekly inter departmental  meetings with representatives of the foreign affairs,defence and the ministry of interior and others. This is a multidmensional diplomacy to meet the challenges facingthe Sahel region and its West African neighbours. It marks perhaps a change in France's diplomacy for the region relying more on partnership between the EU and African governments and international bodies such as the UN and the African Union.