Afragile peace that had shakily en-dured since an agreement in July last year finally collapsed earlier this month in chaos and bloodshed. But rather than merely a resurgence of civil war between rebels in the mainly Muslim north and government forces based in the south, the latest fighting has become a three-way wrangle involving the former colony's old masters, the French. If they cannot, under their United Nations mandate, restore order fast, it will be one of their biggest embarrassments abroad for many years.
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