AU sets donors meeting on Mali force
2013-01-18 11:51
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Addis Ababa - The African Union said on Thursday it will
hold a donors conference on 29 January to garner funds and support for the
Malian army and for the African force being deployed to help Mali fight off
Islamist insurgents.
A meeting of the African Union and the West African regional
bloc Ecowas "agreed that the donors' conference ... would be held in Addis
Ababa on 29 January following the conclusion of the AU summit", the
pan-African body said in a statement.
The UN Security Council last month approved sending an
African-led military force to help re-conquer the north of Mali from Islamist
militants.
The UN resolution gave the African-led force an initial
one-year mandate to use "all necessary measures" to help Mali's
government take back territory seized in the wake of a coup last March from
"terrorist, extremist and armed groups".
While the Economic Community of West African States has been
mobilising troops from regional countries, the AU Commission will lead the
mobilisation of contingents from elsewhere on the continent, the statement
said.
Nigeria will command the force and has pledged 900 troops
but has so far failed to meet its deadline for getting them on the ground in
Mali.
Other west African states that have pledged troops are:
Benin, Ghana, Niger, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Togo.
Burundi has offered to contribute troops to the force, which
is known by the acronym AFISMA - the African-led International Support Mission
in Mali.
Al-Qaeda linked groups and other Islamists that have taken
over parts of northern Mali have imposed a brutal form of sharia law.
- SAPA
