You have commented 338 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Africa North
Mali PM Calls for Swift African Military Action
2012-12-28
[An Nahar] Mali's new Prime Minister Diango Cissoko called Thursday for military intervention by an African force to help take back the Islamist-controlled north "as quickly as possible".
"Please don't let them kill me!"
"We have confidence in this intervention," Cissoko told journalists in Abidjan after meeting with Ivorian 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....
, the current head of the West African bloc ECOWAS which is preparing the intervention force.

This operation "will take place as soon as conditions are met and we are doing all so those conditions are met as quickly as possible," he said.

The U.N. Security Council on December 20 approved the deployment of an international force in Mali, but in stages and without a precise timetable. It also insisted on the need for dialogue with the gangs in the north which reject terrorism and the partition of the country.

Armed Islamist groups, some with al-Qaeda links, seized northern Mali in the wake of a March coup in Bamako, and have imposed a brutal form of Islamic sharia law.

An interim government has taken over in Bamako and Cissoko said "credible" elections would be held when conditions allow.

U.N. chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
recently pressed Mali's government to hold free elections as soon as possible as part of preparations for the intervention force.
Posted by:Fred

#1  Save me infidels, it's my only hope.
Posted by: lord garth   2012-12-28 03:36  

00:00