What Happened in Mali?

I was quite surprised to read the news on France involvement  on the "internal" Mali troubles with "rebels" and "supposedly terrorists". Common sense would of course ruled that action as probably "useless" and waste of taxpayer money. But, well, not exactly if you dig deeper though.

The first hint comes from "the conflict" happens in the North of Mali (http://blogs.defensenews.com/intercepts/2013/01/photo-of-the-day-jan-15-2013/). What the hell is there in the "North"? Call me conspiracy theorists. But, if you look at this: http://www.oklouranium.com/, you'll notice that there is an uranium ore mine to the northeast of Mali. Are these guys fighting for Uranium? Well, that link shows that the company mining the uranium is from Australia, instead of France. But, if that
mine falls to the "rebels" hand, that would be a VERY big trouble. I'm quite sure there is black market for uranium and also there's demand of course. Another interesting fact is Mali has a quite big gold deposit (12th) in the world and 3rd in Africa. The fact is mentioned in the previous link. This is interesting nonetheless. If the rebels could control access to the gold deposit, they could probably fund themselves adequately.

Another issue in Africa lately is the feeling of unease in the West as China encroach into Africa and making big inroads, trying to secure raw materials in an area traditionally "controlled" by European countries. Well, maybe I'm thinking too much into this. But, I think it's just common sense. Any industrialized/semi-industrialized Nation or let's groups of people would have demands for raw materials. The problem is, if the material is as dangerous as uranium, that would be troublesome.

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