Offensive in Mali

Posted on January 31, 2013 by bill

  • Les otages français au Sahel sont “probablement” au nord Mali (Le Drian)

    Invité de nos confrères de France Inter, le ministre de la Défense fait le point sur la situation au Mali : l’armée française tient l’aéroport de Kidal mais sa progression est ralentie par une tempête de sable. S’agissant des sept otages français retenus au Sahel, il est “probable” qu’ils soient dans le massif des Iforhas, dans le nord du Mali, selon Jean-Yves Le Drian.

    The Minister of Defence, Jean-Yves Le Drian, has given an interview following the French forces drive as far as the airport of Kidel, NE Mali. Progress has been slowed up by a sand storm. He says the seven French hostages held by Sahel are probably in the massif (Adrar) des Iforhas (A mountainous region straddling the NE of Mali and SW Algeria.

  • Le témoignage d’un Malien mutilé par les islamistes

    L’avance des forces françaises au Nord du Mali se poursuit. Les villes de Kidal, Tombouctou et Gao ont été libérées. Gao où l’on découvre jour après jour les horreurs infligées par les islamistes à la population. Les envoyés spéciaux de France Info Sébastien Paour et Gilles Gallinaro ont rencontré un jeune homme de 22 ans mutilé par les djihadistes.

  • The advances made by French forces in N Mali continue. Gao, Tombouctu and Kidal were liberated. In Gao every day there are new discoveries of atrocoties committed on the local population by the islamists. A young man, 22 yrs old had his right had amputated because his brother was in the Mali army. Women and girls raped and the town square, re-named ‘Sharia’ is where punishment was dispensed on an innocent people. The islamists have been driven out by the army, without any real opposition, into the Adrar des Iforhas, a mountainous region of NE Mali, towards the Algerian border.   It is hard to imaging the French allowing the islamists to run off to fight another day. On verra!

About bill

Worked in the technical / engineering area as a Science Laboratory Technician and as an Aeronautics Engineer. The artistic side involves writing under the nom de plume of Billy Olsenn, his recently written play 'A Case of Wine' was staged by the players group Straight Make-Up at the 2012 Birr one act drama festival. It's next staging was in the one act circuit is in Cavan, at Maudebawn on Sat 10 Nov 2012. Then it was performed in the Bray, Co.Wicklow at the very popular one act festival in January 2013. Next play is FEAR. A dark tale about revenge on the cruel death of two pensioners by young thugs. Neighbours hatch a devious and dangerous plan to exact old-style revenge. Bill is a member of the Drama League of Ireland and his plays have been critically vetted and certified as original pieces of work by the DLI. Another literary project is that of commemoration of an aircraft crash on Djouce mountain in Wicklow in 1946. Bill wrote articles for the 50th, 60th and most recently the 70th anniversary, (12 Aug 2016) all were published in the Wicklow Times and ensured the survivors of the crash, all French Girl Guides, were not forgotten. Articles reproduced on this website. But mostly this site gives a more general European and specific French slant on popular and not so popular articles of French news, translated to English by the author. Each article is translated on a paragraph by paragraph basis so easy to read in either language and even possible to improve either language by comparison of the short English and French paragraphs. Amusez vous bien. The author is currently writing an easy to read technical aviation book centered around the Fokker 50. Another interest is that dealt with in another of Bill's websites www.realnamara.net, a Statue of the mother of God, Mary. It was erected in 1972 in Dublin, at the end of the Bull Wall near Clontarf, and my grandfather William Nelson, was the main instigator of that project. I give talks on the history of the statue and my grandfather's adventurous and dangerous life at sea. Technical assistance with each website is by J O'N.
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