Troops from a West African force will be in Mali within days
to help a French intervention against Islamist rebels, Nigeria says.
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History of Mali conflict
France has almost 800 troops in Mali and is expected to increase that number to 2,500
Troops
from a regional West African force will be in Mali within days to help a
French intervention against Islamist rebels, Nigeria says.
The force's commander, Gen Shehu Abdulkadir, confirmed the
move to the BBC as West African military commanders met in Mali's
capital, Bamako.
France has almost 800 troops in Mali, and another 1,700 involved elsewhere.
It began its intervention last Friday with the aim of halting the Islamists' advance south.
'Confident'
Nigeria now plans to provide 900 troops for the West African force, 300 more than previously announced.
The force is expected to be 3,300 strong. It will be deployed
under UN Security Council resolution 2085, which was passed in
December.
Continue reading the main story
Analysis
Jonathan Marcus
BBC diplomatic correspondent
France's wider goal in this campaign is unclear. Is this a
mission to push back and contain the Islamist forces? Or is its aim that
the government in Bamako expand its control into the vast north of the
country?
That is a huge task in military terms, leaving aside the very
real political problems which in many ways precipitated this crisis in
the first place.
France speaks of handing over the mission to African forces
as soon as possible. But how effective will the multinational West
African force be?
And what about the Malian army itself? It has suffered severe
reverses. It has lost quantities of equipment. It needs to be reformed
and retrained. Key EU countries are willing to undertake this task - but
again, it will take time.
The African troops may well require French air power and
logistical support for the foreseeable future. And for the moment, it is
largely French forces that must hold the line.
Nigerian Col Mohammed Yerima said
"the president approved the deployment of a battalion" and added that
the first company of almost 200 soldiers would set off by the end of
Wednesday.
Nigeria has the biggest military in Ecowas, the regional grouping that is overseeing the military response.
Ivory Coast army chief Gen Soumaila Bakayoko said: "We are
here today to speak essentially about the engagement alongside our
Malian brothers in arms, to liberate the north of Mali."
Benin, Ghana, Niger, Senegal, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Togo have also pledged troops.
A summit of West African leaders on Saturday is expected to
discuss the crisis further, as will a meeting of EU foreign ministers in
Brussels on Thursday.
French warplanes have carried out a series of air strikes on Islamist positions since the intervention began on Friday.
The raids continued overnight, with President Francois Hollande saying they had "achieved their goal".
He told a news conference in Dubai on Tuesday that France had
three aims in Mali: "to stop the terrorist aggression... making Bamako
safe... and enabling Mali to recover its territorial integrity.
"You ask what we'll do with the terrorists that are found - destroy them, take them prisoner if possible."
A convoy of French armoured trucks crossed into Mali from
Ivory Coast late on Monday and defence sources told French media that
the size of the French force would build up gradually to 2,500.
Quoting diplomatic and military sources, BBC West Africa
correspondent Thomas Fessy said French troops would take part in the
second phase of the Mali operation, namely driving Islamists out of the
main towns they occupied.
Most of the regional armies, apart from Niger, have no
experience of the complex task to be carried out in sandy or mountainous
conditions, he says.
Raids on Diabaly
Islamists are reported to have pulled out of Gao and the
historic town of Timbuktu, two of the big population centres that they
overran in the north last year.
One resident in Timbuktu said the population was "free". "We
can go out, we can smoke, people are happy," he told BBC Focus on Africa
but added that people were too scared to go out on the streets and
openly celebrate.
In Gao, one witness told RFI "the population is beginning to live normally without fearing the imposition of Sharia".
An Ansar Dine rebel spokesman told a Mauritanian website they had made a "tactical withdrawal".
And Malian journalist Kodji Siby told the BBC that fighting
was reported around Timbuktu, a Unesco world heritage site. Fifty rebels
were still visible in the centre of the town, one resident said,
although the majority had abandoned their posts.
Continue reading the main story
Foreign forces in Mali
- Some 750 French troops in Bamako and Mopti
- French Mirage and Rafale jets
- Nigeria to send 900 troops; Senegal, Burkina Faso, Niger and Togo expected to send 500 each, and Benin 300
- Ghana and Guinea also to send troops
- UK providing two C17 cargo planes for French effort
- France says further logistics help coming from Denmark and US
The Islamists struck back on Monday by taking Diabaly, 400km (250 miles) north-east of Bamako.
Major air strikes were carried out overnight to try to dislodge them.
At least 11 Malian soldiers and a French helicopter pilot
have died in Mali since Friday's intervention by France. More than 100
militants are reported to have been killed.
Islamist groups and secular Tuareg rebels took advantage of
chaos following a military coup to seize northern Mali in April 2012.
But the Islamists soon took control of the region's major towns,
sidelining the Tuaregs.
The UN says some 144,500 Malian refugees have been registered in neighbouring countries since April 2012.
It also says that 30,000 people have been displaced as a direct result of conflict this month.
France's intervention has prompted concerns for the welfare
of eight French hostages kidnapped in the area over the past two years.
President Hollande said on Tuesday that "those who have taken
them captive should reflect. There's still time to return them to their
families".
The battle for Mali
French forces have bombed rebel bases in
Mali, where Islamist rebels have threatened to advance on the capital
Bamako from their strongholds in the north. France said it had decided
to act to stop the offensive, which could create "a terrorist state at
the doorstep of France and Europe".
The landlocked area of West Africa was
the core of ancient empires going back to the 4th Century. The French
colonised Mali, then known as French Sudan, at the end of the 19th
Century, while Islamic religious wars created theocratic states in the
region.
Mali gained independence in 1960 but
endured droughts, rebellions and 23 years of military dictatorship until
democratic elections in 1992. In the early 1990s, the nomadic Tuareg of
the north began an insurgency over land and cultural rights.
The fighting in the north and the
establishment of a harsh form of Islamic law has forced thousands to
flee their homes - some estimates say more than half the northern
population has fled south or across borders into neighbouring countries.
The insurgency gathered momentum in 2007,
and was exacerbated by an influx of arms from the 2011 Libyan civil
war. Tuareg nationalists, alongside Islamist groups with links to
al-Qaeda, seized control of the north in 2012 after a military coup by
soldiers frustrated by government efforts against the rebels.
In January 2013, the Islamists captured
the central city of Konna. France, responding to appeals for help from
the Mali president, has sent about 550 troops to the Mopti and to
Bamako, which is home to about 6,000 French nationals. French jets have
also launched air strikes.
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