The assaults in Mali and Algeria have contributed to a sense that North Africa, long a dormant backwater for Al Qaeda, is turning into another zone of dangerous instability.

Once the situation is more stable, France wants African troops to do most of the work to wrest the north of Mali from the Islamists, as called for under a United Nations Security Council resolution passed in December.

The two sides met in Ethiopia to talk about setting up a safe demilitarized border zone, which would require both nations to withdraw their armies at least six miles from the contested border region.

As the standoff entered its fourth day, Algerian officials said they would not negotiate with the militants. The United States said that American citizens were still being held and one was killed.

Though President François Hollande of France has the support of African nations in the region, his army’s fight to preserve a country divided leaves many saying he has overreached.

In Fatou Bensouda’s first months as chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, things have not gone as well as they could have.

Representatives of 58 civic organizations, including religious, legal and human rights groups, condemned what they called an escalating campaign against critics of President Robert Mugabe’s party.