Hollande Tells Jubilant Malians That French Will Battle On

French President Francois Hollande, visiting Mali three weeks after his forces began driving rebels out of most major towns in the north, said troops would battle on to eradicate terrorists from the West African country.

“Terrorism was pushed back, chased, but it hasn’t yet been vanquished,” Hollande told a jubilant crowd in the capital, Bamako, today. “France will stay with you as long as it takes, until the time for Africans themselves to replace us. Until then we will be beside you to the end, as far as north Mali.”