ABIDJAN: Mali’s new Prime Minister Diango Cissoko yesterday called for military intervention by an African force to help take back the Islamist-controlled north “as quickly as possible”.
“We have confidence in this intervention,” Cissoko told journalists in Abidjan after meeting with Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara, 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 UN 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 armed groups in the north which reject terrorism and the partition of the country. AFP
