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Two other options for Canada in Africa would be to do something in Libya, where an Italian-led stabilization operation is taking forever to get off the ground, or in nearby Mali or Niger.

However, going to either place would be nothing like the peacekeeping operations that many Canadians get nostalgic about. Opportunities for benign, almost risk-free ‘blue beret’ interventions no longer exist anywhere today.

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The Hollande government has made clear that Paris would welcome any help it can get to fight the terrorists from al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, and its offshoot, al-Mourabitoun, who were responsible for the attack on a hotel and cafe in Burkina Faso that killed 30 people, including six Quebecers.

If Canadian troops were to join what the French have dubbed Operation Barkhane it would mean collaborating closely with their army and air force. France already has 3,000 troops as well as fighter jets and drones involved in counter-terrorism missions against Tuareg, Algerian and Libyan extremists in the Sahel. That is the long, fairly narrow strip of land that divides the Sahara from the grasslands to the south.

The French headquarters is in Chad but most of its troops are on operations in Mali and Niger or working from a small special forces base in Burkina Faso.

If Canada was to participate in the French endeavour it would most likely be as part of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). The German cabinet recently approved plans to deploy 650 troops to northern Mali so that France could shift more of its war effort to the Middle East.