Politics
ECOWAS urges members to hasten troop deployment in Mali
(AFP) – The emergency summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regional bloc has called on member states and Chad, which has pledged 2,000 troops, to put words into action without haste in the military intervention efforts in Mali.
At present, only about 100 African soldiers of a planned 5,800 African force have so far reached Mali.
A statement at the end of the Abidjan meeting called on the United Nations “to immediately provide financial and logistical backing for the deployment of the African Support Mission in Mali (MISMA).
Cote d’Ivoire President Alassane Ouattara, who is also the current head of ECOWAS, said it was high time others did their bit to help end the crisis.
“The hour has come for a broader commitment by the major powers and more countries and organisations to the military operations to show greater solidarity with Mali and Africa,” he said.
“We must speed up the re-establishment of Mali’s territorial integrity with the logistical support of our partners … (and) go beyond our current deployment numbers,” Ouattara said, warning that the crisis threatened to destabilize the region.
Malian soldiers, backed by French troops and air power, retook the key central town of Konna on Thursday from Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents who had swooped down more than a week ago and threatened the capital Bamako.
Mali’s interim President Dioncounda Traore, in an address on state television late Saturday, vowed to rout the Islamists who he said wanted “to impose a medieval ideology on our people”.
“This war will be without doubt costly and tiring,” he said, but added: “We will win this war in the name of civilisation and democracy.”
Traore also appealed to other countries to back the drive against the militants by extending “logistical and any other kind of aid to create a region that is rid of terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime”.
The Malian army proved no match for Tuareg separatist rebels who took them by surprise when they re-launched a decades-old rebellion in January last year.
As anger rose over their defeats, a group of soldiers overthrew the government in Bamako in a disastrous March coup, which only made it easier for the Tuareg and their new al-Qaeda-linked allies to seize the vast arid north.