MORE TROOPS SENT TO REPEL MALI REBELS
France and Ivory Coast add manpower as air raids continue
BAMAKO/PARIS: French fighter jets bombed rebels in Mali for a third day yesterday as Paris poured more troops into the capital Bamako, awaiting the arrival of a west African force to dislodge them from the country’s north.
French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said France’s intervention on Friday to bomb a convoy of armed Islamist fighters sweeping southwards had stopped them from seizing Mali’s capital Bamako.
Western countries fear Islamists could use Mali as a base for attacks on the West, forming a link with al-Qaeda militants in Yemen, Somalia and north Africa.
Le Drian said former colonial power France was carrying out continuous bombing raids against the alliance of rebel groups, which seized the country’s vast desert north in April.
“There are raids going on now: there were some last night, and there will be more tomorrow,” Le Drian told French television.
Residents said French aircraft bombed the northern town of Gao, and a Malian rebel spokesman said they bombed targets in the towns of Lere and Douentza.
Le Drian said France was deploying a further contingent of 80 soldiers to Mali yesterday, bringing the total to 550 soldiers, split between Bamako and the town of Mopti, 500km north.
President François Hollande has made it clear that France’s aim in Mali is to support the deployment of a west African mission to retake the north, endorsed by the UN, the EU and the US.
The 15-nation Economic Community of West African States convened a summit for Saturday in Ivory Coast to discuss the military campaign.
With Paris pressing west African nations to deploy troops quickly, Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara, who holds the rotating Ecowas chairmanship, has kick-started the operation to deploy 3 300 African soldiers.
“The troops will start arriving in Bamako today and tomorrow,” Ali Coulibaly, Ivory Coast’s African integration minister, said yesterday. “They will be convoyed to the front at Sevare.” – Reuters