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Mali: African Union to hold donor conference on intervention
The African Union is next week expected to hold a conference with potential donors to raise funds to support the planned African military intervention in northern Mali.
A meeting between the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) agreed that the conference be held in Addis Ababa on January 29 at the end of the upcoming summit.
The UN Security council last December approved sending an African-led military force to liberate northern Mali from Islamist militants giving them the mandate to use all necessary measures to help the Mali government take back the territory.
The International Support Mission in Mali (MISMA), as the African force will be called, will consist of troops from across the continent including Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, Niger, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Togo and Burundi.
A first contingent of 200 Chadian soldiers sent to help battle the armed Islamists in Mali has arrived in the country’s eastern neighbor Niger, a military source said Thursday.
“Two hundred Chadian special forces left N’Djamena last night,” the official told reporters on condition of anonymity, adding that the troops were currently at a military base in Niger’s capital Niamey.
First of a 2,000-strong contribution pledged by Chad for the Malian campaign, the troops were to be joined by Burkinabe and Nigerien forces before heading together into Mali.
“Our elements went aboard three aircraft — the tanks were transported in a C130, the pick-up trucks in an Antonov and the troops embarked on a Boeing of the Toumai Air Tchad airline,” the source said.
In an interview with Radio France international on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Moussa Faki Mahamat said the Chadian commitment for Mali consists of an infantry regiment and two support battalions.
“Our presence has to be significant in order to effectively accomplish our mission,” he told Radio France Internationale, adding that the troops would work closely with Mali’s army and with MISMA.
Battle-hardened Chadian soldiers, used to conflict in the desert, are expected to provide a key operational boost to MISMA, which is being deployed by ECOWAS.
The UN-approved MISMA will be led by a Nigerian general, Shehu Abdulkadir. The full ECOWAS contingent is expected to have assembled in Bamako by January 26.
Nigeria is sending 900 men. Niger, Burkina Faso, Togo and Senegal have each announced that they will send some 500 men, Benin will send 300, and Guinea and Ghana will send more than 100 each.
Copyright 2013 AFP