Niger uranium plays key role in France’s Mali war: Douglas Degroot

An analyst says maintaining access to the vast uranium resources in Mali’s eastern neighbor Niger, the world’s fifth-largest producer of uranium, has played a key role in the French-led war on Mali.

The comment comes as Thousands of people in Mali have been forced to flee their homes amid the French war, which involved some 3,500 troops on the ground supported by warplanes, helicopters and armored vehicles.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said more than 5,000 Malian refugees have arrived in Mauritania alone since January 11, when France launched the war under the pretext of halting the advance of the fighters in the African country.

Analysts believe behind the military campaign are Mali’s untapped resources, including oil, gold, as well as the uranium in the region.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Douglas Degroot in Leesburg with the Executive Intelligence Review weekly magazine. A rough transcription of the interview follows.

Press TV: As the French war in Northern Mali moves further North how far do you think the French are willing to take this considering many are already predicting that these rebels or militants or al-Qaeda fighters whatever you want to call them are running away to countries like Niger, to Algeria. So do you think that the French incursion in Mali is going to turn out to be bigger than initially planned?

Degroot: The French are indicating that they are not going to get much bigger. Their plan is to get a UN peace-keeping force to come in and basically almost relieve them although they will stand by. Their goal from what African sources have told me is to try and push these forces out of Mali and then try and secure the borders with the UN peace keeping operation.

This is going to put tremendous pressure on both Mauritanians and more importantly Algeria because it’s a bigger country. It’s the last big country in Africa that hasn’t been broken. Algeria heretofore has pushed all of these problems across the border and if force comes pushes them back in Algeria would be like a kind of pressure cooker and it’s going to create a lot of internal problems for them and also maybe earlier for Mauritania which is more fragile than Algeria.

Press TV: Alright then let me rephrase my question, considering France could not accept militant-infiltrated Mali will it accept such a situation in Algeria?

Degroot: That’s the big question whether they’ll intervene some people think they’re not going to and that they are going to let this situation evolve into a actual change inside Algeria of some kind which could be a very tense situation that one I don’t know yet. I can’t make a forecast on that one; it’s hard to see how they’re thinking about this.

The initial thing it seems to be trying to preserve their access to the uranium in Niger and that’s why they are trying to get Niger and Mali stabilized whether they can even do that of course is also a question because this is now with the people, the rebels flushed out of the towns it’s opened a guerilla war and I don’t know how affective that can be or how big the numbers are that the rebels have or whether they’ll intervene on Algeria’s behalf is something I can’t forecast yet.