Of France and its Former Colonies in Africa

Did the French intervention help Mali or did it worsen the situation? I recall not everyone welcomed the French intervention in Mali and indeed the fact that France is always fast in intervening in African states especially its former colonies has never been met with ululations. Some still see France as a colonizer, as a country that never let it go even long after independence of the said states was declared. Is France still a colonial master of most of the countries especially in central and west Africa? Some think so. For instance, Algerian newspaper, Liberte, commenting on France’s intervention in Mali held that: “The French military intervention has been code-named ‘Serval.’ Now, for those who do not know, the Serval is an African Cat of prey that has the peculiar trait of urinating thirty times an hour to mark its territory. Is Frances’s interventions a result of the country’s obsession to cling to its territory in the name of assisting its former colonies?