As Mali’s junta mourns the death of Defence Minister General Sadio CamaraIn, with thousands coming out to pay tribute, FRANCE 24’s François Picard welcomes Paul Melly, Consulting Fellow for the Africa Programme at Chatham House and expert on the Sahel region. He offers a sobering assessment of Mali’s deepening crisis, framing current events within both historical precedent and a radically altered geopolitical landscape. While echoes of the 2012 Mali crisis are unmistakable, “are we in the same situation as in 2012 when the French military had to swoop in to save Mali’s capital from being overrun by insurgents?” asks François Picard.