It is hard to overstate the sense of shock reverberating across West Africa after attackers, in co-ordinated assaults, managed to enter Mali's capital, Bamako, assassinate the defence minister and recapture territory in the north. Residents in different cities across the country woke to gunfire and explosions on Saturday - attacks which an alliance of two groups - the separatist Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) and the al-Qaeda-linked JNIM group - said they were behind. The scale of the offensive