Mali: Military intervention plan by ECOWAS at advanced stage

The details of the plan have not been made public, but army sources say more than 4,000 troops could be sent into Mali.

Mali, once one of the region’s most stable democracies, rapidly imploded after a coup in March allowed Tuareg desert nomads, who had relaunched a decades-old rebellion for independence, to seize the main towns in the north with the help of Islamist allies.

The secular separatists were quickly sidelined by the Islamists, who had little interest in their aspirations for an independent homeland and set about implementing their version of strict sharia law.

Copyright 2012 AFP

Pages: 1 2 3