West African military chiefs met in Abidjan on Thursday to discuss the possible deployment of a regional force to deal with the crisis in Mali. Chiefs of staff from the Ecowas regional bloc are believed to be considering sending some 2,000 troops to northern Mali. The meeting comes as France said it sees no military solution to the crisis there. RFI talked to Dr Jolyn Ford, a senior analyst at Oxford Analytica about the implications of regional and western military intervention in Mali.
