Just because we haven’t written anything about it recently, doesn’t mean the French have stopped their efforts to suppress jihadist groups in central Africa. See a Worldcrunch article on French efforts in Mali against the salafist rebels.
The efforts there utilize quite high tech means as well as boots on the ground, and their emphasis is on identifying, finding and killing rebels. It’s a latter-day version of La Legion Etrangere c'est le gendarme de l'Afrique, as we’ve noted before.
Surprising how often today’s miltary is involved in what amounts to “pest control,” finding and exterminating violently anti-social elements. Whether it it Russian troops in Chechnia, French troops in Mali, Philippine troops in Mindanao or American troops in Afghanistan and Syria, it is the same painful, unglamorous business of “dangerous pest” abatement. In our hemisphere the Peruvian, Mexican and Colombian militaries have confronted similar “challenges.”
