Mali: African and U.N. military planners prepare for intervention

Military experts from Africa and the United Nations have drawn up a preliminary plan to recapture northern Mali from al-Qaeda-linked Islamists, African officials said on Tuesday.

The plan will involve a force of more than 4,000 personnel, from West African countries.

The crisis in Mali has become a security concern for West African states and Western governments worried its vast desert could turn into a training ground for militants.

Mali fell into chaos after a coup in March, toppled the president and paved the way for the al-Qaeda-linked Islamist takeover of the north.

The military experts drew up the plan at a week-long meeting in Bamako (the capital of Mali), and submitted it to the West African regional bloc – the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for approval on Tuesday. The blueprint will then be reviewed by the United Nations Security Council in mid-November, setting the stage for action.

“We need to respond in detail to the Security Council on the logistics, timing, size and funding for the deployment of this mission,” Desire Ouedraogo, president of the ECOWAS Commission, told military planners at a ceremony on Tuesday.

The Security Council gave African leaders 45 days from October 12 to draw up a plan for military intervention to retake control of the north. Diplomats say that any such operation is months away, however.

While regional and international efforts to deal with the situation have been hobbled by division over how far to proceed with negotiations with the rebels, a consensus is building that an intervention is inevitable.

Representatives from the Islamist rebel group Ansar Dine are pursuing talks with regional mediator Blaise Compaore, the president of Burkina Faso. Ansar Dine has also sent delegates for talks with regional power Algeria in an apparent effort to head off an intervention.

The official present at the planning meetings said a military headquarters for the mission would be set up in Koulikoro, about 60 km (45 miles) from Bamako.

U.S.-based risk consultancy Stratfor said an intervention would likely drive the al-Qaeda-linked fighters out of their strongholds – Timbuktu, Gao, and Kidal – and into the mountain ranges of Mali and Niger where their influence could be contained.

Former colonial power France has been a vocal backer of military action. The United States, which spent years working with the Malian army against al Qaeda’s Sahara wing, has called for a more cautious approach, seeking elections first to strengthen the political leadership.

Source: Reuters, Associated Press