Insight - Revival of Islamists in Mali tests French, U.N. nerve

United Nations peacekeepers stand guard outside the headquarters of former Islamist rebel group High Council for the Unity of Azawad (HCUA) in Kidal August 28, 2013 REUTERS/Adama Diarra

DAKAR/NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - Nine months after they were scattered across the Sahara by waves of French air strikes, Islamists in Mali are making a comeback - naming new leaders, attacking U.N. peacekeepers and killing two French journalists.

Their return is making it harder for the west African country's new president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and his foreign backers to stabilise the northern desert despite the incentive of more than $3 billion in international aid for the area.