Not that much of a mystery. The French already operate the C-130 and their forces (including paras/SF) are involved in fairly intensive ops in Africa so I guess they need a known quantity off the shelf now, I suspect the military feel they can't wait for the A400, though the politicians might have a different idea.
The Mali stuff seems to be largely ignored outside France these days but some of our local news here:
http://www.ladepeche.fr/article/2015...ur-guerre.html
They're up to something because a couple of C-130s have been busy trying to take the roof off chez Wiggy day and night in the last few weeks
