Mali: Africa's Challenge

"The situation in Mali is one of the most serious situations our continent is confronted with," Ping said at the start of a closed-door meeting on Mali and on tensions between Sudan and the year-old breakaway nation South Sudan.
 
He said Mali's crisis "imperils the very existence of Mali as a nation".Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara, the AU Peace and Security Council chair, said the conference "condemns the aim of the terrorist groups to turn northern Mali into a sanctuary and a coordination centre for terrorist groups on the continent such as AQIM, MUJAO, Boko Haram and al-Shebab."Ouattara said the four militant groups "constitute a serious threat to regional and international peace and security".

There was a consensus that the priority was to establish a government of national unity in Bamako so that the South of Mali could be brought under effective contol and the standy Ecowas force of 3,300 troops could then be brought in to assist the Malian army to restructure itself so that it could be come an effective fighting force. Once the government of national unity was formed attention could then be turned to dealing with AGIM and the other terrorist groups in the North. it was noted that the continued absence of interim President Dioconda Traoré in Paris recovering from injures when he was attacked by a mob is delaying the process of establishing an effective government in Bamako.

The emphasis is still on finding a negotiated settlement on Northern Mali but although all sides express a  "total convergence of views" on the issue progress is painfully slow. The AU meeting also had to consider the conflicts in Somalia,Sudan and DRC Congo where the AU is planning to send a  peace keeping force. There are perhaps too many conflicts happening at the sametime on the African continent.


In a television interview President Francois Hollande said that it was for the Africans themselves to decide on the intervention in Mali. It should be "that Africans themselves can organize support in Mali," said Mr. Hollande.

Laurent Fabius France's Foreign Minister earlier acknowledged the seriousness of the terrorist take over of Northern Mali pointing out that the three main cities of Gao ,Kidal and Timbuktu are under Al Qaeda control. He recogtnised that decisive action needed to be taken.He is currently on a visit to Algeria .