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Mali: Military intervention plan by ECOWAS at advanced stage
West African nations on Friday plotted military force against “terrorist groups” in Islamist-occupied northern Mali as regional foreign and defence ministers met on a strategy to win back the vast territory.
The ministers from the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) were to move forward on a plan aimed at returning Mali’s north to government control at a summit of the bloc’s leaders on Sunday, also in Abuja.
It would eventually be transferred for approval at the UN Security Council, which on October 12 set a 45-day timeframe for a blueprint.
The plan would be handed over to the United Nations through the African Union’s Peace and Security Council, ECOWAS Commission President Kadre Desire Ouedraogo said at the meeting’s opening on Friday.
At the same time, attempts at dialogue remain ongoing to resolve the crisis, which analysts have warned poses potential problems to other countries in west Africa at risk of violence from Islamist extremists.
“The urgent need to halt the mafia and criminal practices of terrorist groups and the atrocities committed with impunity by the extremists requires a strong mobilization on behalf of Mali,” Ouedraogo said.
He said the bloc should pursue a dual approach of dialogue and military pressure allowing it to “stand by Mali … and help her regain her territorial integrity (and) dismantle terrorist networks.”
