• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

International Groups Discuss Mali Support

by VOA News February 05, 2013

International organizations and officials from Mali are meeting Tuesday to discuss efforts to stabilize the country, following a campaign by French and Malian forces to retake control of major northern cities.

The United Nations, European Union, African Union and the Economic Community of West African states lead a list of about 45 delegations taking part at the meeting in Brussels.

They will discuss humanitarian and human rights efforts, as well as the political process in Mali, where the crisis began last year when soldiers overthrew the president. Interim leader Dioncounda Traore wants to hold new elections in July.

Another key item is the progress of an African intervention force that will take over for French troops, who have been battling Islamist militants in northern Mali for three weeks.

The European Union is working on plans to send hundreds of trainers to help Mali's military. So far, 17 European countries have pledged to contribute to the training force.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Monday that French warplanes were continuing bombing raids on supply routes and training centers in the remote desert of northeastern Mali. He told French radio that the objective is to make it impossible for the rebels to stay in northern Mali, long-term.

Also Monday, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden met with French President Francois Hollande in Paris and praised the French operation in Mali, calling it 'decisive.'

Biden also backed France's call for U.N. peacekeepers to be deployed to Mali

The Tuareg separatist group MNLA also said Monday it arrested two senior Islamist militants in northern Mali, including a top leader of the radical group Ansar Dine. It identified the militants as Mohamed Moussa Ag Mohamed and Oumeini Ould Baba Akhmed, saying they were captured Saturday near Mali's border with Algeria.

Ag Mohamed is the number-three leader of Ansar Dine and helped impose a harsh form of Islamic law on the city of Timbuktu.

Baba Akhmed is believed to be a member of the Movement for Unification and Jihad in West Africa, also known as MUJAO.

The two groups, along with al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, controlled the major towns of northern Mali for about nine months before being driven out by the French and Malian armies.

The March 2012 coup in Mali allowed the MNLA and Islamist groups to take control of the north. The Islamists then seized full control of the region and imposed strict Sharia law with measures that included a ban on music and forcing women to wear veils.

The groups also carried out public executions, floggings, and amputations for alleged criminals, drawing strong condemnation for human rights groups and the United Nations.