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Africa North
ECOWAS seeks Maghreb support for Mali action
2013-01-22
[MAGHAREBIA] African states are stepping up efforts to rally support for their Mali intervention, by inviting Maghreb countries to participate in the war.
It's starting to look like the ECOWAS strategy is to keep talking until the Frenchies drive AQIM out, then hold a victory parade. Betcha their troops can make it for that.
The Economic Organisation of West African States (ECOWAS) and its international counterparts seek to support the Malian and French forces that have been on the ground in northern Mali since January 11th.

One way is to bring in more help from the continent.

"I call on both Mauritania and Algeria to participate along with African and international forces in order to eliminate terrorist forces in the north of Mali," ECOWAS Chairman and Côte d'Ivoire President Alassane Ouattara
...the current president-for-life of Ivory Coast. He actually beat his predecessor in an election before having to eject him from the presidential palazzo....
said Saturday (January 19th) in Abidjan.

"I think that the In Amenas incident in south Algeria is enough to make the participation of Algeria and Mauritania in this war both justified and required," he told the gathering.

He praised Mauritania's decision "to close its borders, and to allow the international force to use its airspace to strike gangs".

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said that African troops should deploy as soon as possible, as French troops cannot fill the role of African countries.

Africans have not eliminated the option of trying to find a political solution to the Malian crisis.

Ouattara called for "continued efforts of Burkina Faso
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and may be in the process of being chased out now...
to find a parallel and deep solution to the roots of the Malian crisis in the north through encouraging dialogue".

"The negotiations with gangs should continue in parallel with military action in Mali," Burkina Faso Foreign Minister Djibril Bassolé told Sahara Media.

"The African forces deployed since this weekend, starting with the Nigerian unit, still need more co-ordination and support," commented journalist and expert in African affairs Yacoob Ould Bahadah.

"I do not expect an actual deployment of African forces on the ground before the donors conference scheduled for January 29th in the Æthiopian capital Addis Ababa," Ould Bahadah told Magharebia.

The European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
last week decided to allocate 50 million euros towards supporting the deployment of African forces in Mali, in addition to a grant of another 250 million euros to support development programmes and the democratic transition in Mali.

The EU agreed to send a European military training mission to Mali starting in mid-February and consisting of 450 members, including 200 trainers.
Posted by:Fred

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