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Europe Mulls Forceful Presence in Conflict-torn Sahel

Lisa Bryant

   PARIS - The European Union is being urged to become more militarily
   involved in Africa's Sahel region amid a possible drawdown of U.S.
   troops and a fast-growing Islamist insurgency.

   Fallout from escalating unrest in the arid scrubland edging the Sahara
   dessert -- threatening to push deeper into sub-Saharan Africa and
   potentially export instability and migration across the Mediterranean
   Sea -- offers a powerful argument for more European action. That is
   also the message from France, the United States and the EU's own
   executive arm.

   But it's not clear whether EU member states have much appetite for more
   military action. And current EU policy in the region, some analysts
   say, appears disjointed and scattershot.

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