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| Africa North |
| France, Mali urge vigilance against 'terror' threat |
| 2013-10-02 |
| [MAIN.OMANOBSERVER.OM] The presidents of La Belle France and Mali warned of a possible "terrorist" resurgence in the Sahel as they met in Gay Paree yesterday after fresh fighting between faceless myrmidons and the military in the African nation. Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita is cutting short his visit to La Belle France after the festivities with Tuareg fighters fighting for autonomy in the north of his country. On Tuesday he told his French counterpart Francois Hollande ...the Socialist president of La Belle France, an economic bad joke for la Belle France but seemingly a foreign policy realist... that reconciliation was his priority, after talks with the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) collapsed. "The Franco-African intervention put an end to the terrorist threat, but it could try to rebuild... we must remain vigilant," the two leaders said in a joint statement released by Hollande's office after the talks. The meeting between the two leaders came against a backdrop of deteriorating security in Mali, where a car kaboom claimed by Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM) killed two civilians and maimed several soldiers on Saturday. Calm returned yesterday to the rebel bastion of Kidal after fighting between the MNLA and the army, but tensions remained high, a military source from the UN's MINUSMA peacekeeping force in Mali told AFP. The MNLA, the main Tuareg group involved in peace talks between rebels and the government which broke down on Thursday, said three of its fighters had been maimed during a shootout on Sunday which lasted more than an hour. |
| Posted by:Fred |