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| Africa North |
| U.N. Envoy Calls for Both Talks and Military Prep in Mali |
| 2012-12-20 |
| [An Nahar] Crisis talks with the Islamist snuffies occupying northern Mali need to go hand in hand with credible preparations for an African-led military intervention, the United Nations ...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... ' special envoy for West Africa said Wednesday. "No pacifist solution will be possible without credible military preparation," U.N. envoy for the Sahel region ... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas... Romano Prodi said after talks with Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou. "Once the military action is credible, it will be necessary to move ahead with parallel negotiations." West African regional bloc ECOWAS has 3,300 troops on standby for a military mission to reclaim Mali's vast desert north, but the U.N. has expressed reservations and warned a deployment could take almost another year. On Monday, African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... leaders called for the urgent deployment of the force to retake the La Belle France-sized territory, where residents are being subjected to strict Islamic law. But Prodi stressed that it was vital to approach the matter seriously and lay down heavy-duty groundwork before moving forward. We need "to prepare well for the action, as it'll be necessary to synchronize and coordinate with troops from different countries", he said. |
| Posted by:Fred |