Mali is a big place. 3,500 French troops in a country twice the size of Texas with a population over 15 million isn’t a lot of firepower. It’s pretty unlikely they’ll be aboe to root Al Qaeda out of there.
“Mali is a big place. 3,500 French troops in a country twice the size of Texas with a population over 15 million isn’t a lot of firepower. It’s pretty unlikely they’ll be able to root Al Qaeda out of there.”
It also depends on other factors, such as the performance of the Malian army and the support or lack thereof of the local population.