AFP
PARIS (AFP) France would provide logistical support for any military intervention in northern Mali, which was overrun by Islamist militants this year, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Thursday.
He said the initiative for any such action would come from African states, saying “clearly, that is being developed”. A west African regional grouping has been considering sending more than 3,000 troops into northern Mali.
This meant indirect support, sending material, but not men, he said.
Asked about the threat Wednesday from Al-Qaeda’s North Africa branch to kill French hostages kidnapped in Niger two years ago, Le Drian said the situation in the region was unacceptable.
France could not let a situation develop which ended in the creation “of a kind of terrorist sanctuary” by “organised gangs” claiming to be Al-Qaeda in Mali, he added.
But asked about armed intervention, he said: “There is a process that has already been initiated as the president of Mali has appealed to his neighbours gathered in ECOWAS (the Economic Community of West African States) for their help recapturing the north”.
French President Francois Hollande would raise the issue at the United Nations general assembly in New York next week, but this remained an African initiative, he added.
On Wednesday Al-Qaeda’s North Africa branch threatened to kill French hostages it kidnapped in Niger two years ago, accusing Paris of backing plans for an invasion of Islamist-held northern Mali.
West African nations are currently studying the possible deployment of regional troops to Mali to help win back the north of the country from the armed groups that seized it in the wake of a March 22 coup.
France has already promised to provide logistical support to the operation.
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