Maclean’s video: Questions about Mali

In this narrated photo gallery, Michael Petrou explains why taking on al-Qaeda in north Africa is unavoidable

<p>A soldier of the French foreign legion wearing a skeleton mask stands next to an armored vehicule in a street in Niono, on January 20, 2013. French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said today that the goal of France&#8217;s military action in Mali was to retake control of the entire country from Islamist militants who have seized the north. &#8220;The goal is the total reconquest of Mali. We will not leave any pockets&#8221; of resistance, Le Drian said on French television. AFP / PHOTO / ISSOUF SANOGO        (Photo credit should read ISSOUF SANOGO/AFP/Getty Images)</p>

ISSOUF SANOGO/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Suddenly, a crisis that only weeks ago appeared confined to a part of the world that epitomizes Western notions of exotic inaccessibility—Mali is home to the fabled city of Timbuktu—is pushing itself onto the agenda of strategists in Washington, Paris and Ottawa. Drained from more than a decade in Afghanistan and Iraq, no Western government, including Canada’s, wanted another potentially bruising war in a poverty-ravaged Muslim country. But this one may not be avoidable.

Read Petrou’s feature story here.