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Mali: Interim President returns from hospital
The radical Islamic group Ansar Dine is now imposing a strict version of sharia law in the areas under its control. Earlier this weekend, a man and woman accused of committing adultery were stoned to death in the northern town of Aguelhok, said Ansar Dine spokesman Sanda Abou Mohamed.
Mr. Traoré said that a committee will also be set up to attempt to negotiate with the armed groups in the country’s north. “This committee will be charged with engaging with the armed groups in the north of Mali, in order to speak of peace … with the aim of finding via dialogue a negotiated political solution to the crisis.”
Although Mr. Traoré did not name Ansar Dine, the main Islamic group controlling the north, his statement appears to indicate that the government of Mali is prepared to engage in a dialogue with the al-Qaeda-linked group.
His comments also come as the president of Ivory Coast, Alassane Ouattara, revealed that Mali’s neighbors would consider a military intervention within weeks to try to rout the Islamists in the north.
In the interview published Sunday in the French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche, Mr. Ouattara, who also heads the body representing nations in West Africa (ECOWAS), said that military intervention in Mali is “inevitable” within weeks, if the situation in northern Mali doesn’t change.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press
