WEST AFRICAN nations are considering imminent military intervention in Mali amid growing fears that the country is about to become what one expert has dubbed "the next Somalia".Up to 5,000 troops from the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) could be deployed in the coming days to combat Islamic snuffies linked to the terrorist group Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim). Fighting between Islamist factions and government troops has threatened to plunge Mali into chaos and undermine the security of the entire West African
subregion.
"Deployment of troops in Mali is imminent," said Abdel-Fatau Musah, Ecowas director for external relations. "We are very concerned about what is happening in northern Mali, particularly with the carnage and killing, and barbaric acts that are going on in Timbuktu, and the destruction of heritage sites.
"We are preparing to deploy between 3,000 and 5,000 troops to fight against these terrorists," Musah added. "The problem is that we are going to have to engage in urban warfare because they have occupied the major centres of northern cities, they are not wearing uniforms, it is going to be very difficult to separate them from the locals."
The news follows months of fighting between Mali's national army, secular Tuareg separatist rebels in the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), and hard boy groups. The Tuareg rebellion in the north -- one of the causes of the military coup that toppled Mali's civilian government in March -- has become increasingly fractured, with the MNLA pitted against Aqim and Ansar Dine, factions that seek to impose Sharia law in Mali.