The article does not indicate what would have been the motive for France to participate on the level suggested in the article and claimed by several commentators. Selling a few guns seems hardly to be worth the risk. I've read in such journalists as Kapuszinski that African politics can be quite chaotic and unpredictible. I would venture to guess that the French didn't believe what they first heard and then floundered trying to find an appropriate response. Nothing I have read here seems like more than a deflection of blame from the African killers, and the extortion of guilt offerings.