Politics
ECOWAS urges members to hasten troop deployment in Mali
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.
