French troops to quit Timbuktu
2013-02-04 22:19
Timbuktu - French airstrikes targeted the fuel depots and
desert hideouts of Islamic extremists in northern Mali overnight on Monday, as
a military spokesperson said that French forces plan to hand control of
Timbuktu to the Malian army this week.
After taking control of the key cities of northern Mali,
forcing the Islamic rebels to retreat into the desert, the French military
intervention is turning away from the cities and targeting the fighters' remote
outposts to prevent them bases from being used as Saharan launch pads for
international terrorism.
The French plan to leave the city of Timbuktu on Thursday
7 February, a spokesperson for the armed forces in the city said on Monday.
French soldiers took the city last week after Islamic
extremists withdrew. Now the French military said it intends to move out of
Timbuktu in order to push farther northeast to the strategic city of Gao.
"The 600 soldiers currently based in Timbuktu will
be heading toward Gao in order to pursue their mission," said Captain
Nadia, the spokesperson, who only provided her first name in keeping with
French military protocol.
She said that the force in Timbuktu will be replaced by a
small contingent of French soldiers, though she declined to say when they would
arrive.
On Monday, French troops in armoured personnel carriers
were still patrolling Timbuktu.
In the city's military camps, newly arrived Malian troops
were cleaning their weapons on Monday and holding meetings to prepare to take
over the security of the city once the French leave.
There are signs that the Islamic rebels are beginning a
guerrilla-type of conflict from their desert retreats as land mine explosions
have killed four Malian soldiers and two civilians throughout the northern
region in recent days.
The two civilians died in an explosion from a land mine,
or an improvised explosive device, on the road in north-eastern Mali that links
Kidal, Anefis and North Darane, the UN Office for the Co-ordination of
Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement.
Four soldiers were killed last week by a land mine
explosion in the northeast area near Gossi. The French reported that two other
land mines have been found in that vicinity, and early on Monday they detonated
one of the mines.
Air strikes
French airstrikes targeted the Islamic extremists' desert
bases and fuel depots in northern Mali overnight.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on
France-Inter radio on Monday that the strikes hit the Kidal region, near the
border with Algeria, for the second night in a row.
The extremists
"cannot stay there a long time unless they have ways to get new
supplies," he said.
French Mirage and Rafale planes also pounded extremist
training camps as well as arms and fuel depots from Saturday night into the
early hours of Sunday, north of the town of Kidal and in the Tessalit region.
The French intervened in Mali on 11 January to stem the
advance of the al-Qaeda-linked fighters, who had taken over the country's
north, enforced harsh rules on the population and plotted a terrorist attack in
neighbouring Algeria.
The French troops arrived when the Islamic extremists
threatened to move farther south.
After pushing extremists out of key northern cities, France
is now pushing to hand over control of those sites to African forces from a UN-authorised
force made up of thousands of troops from nearby countries.
"In the cities that we are holding we want to be
quickly replaced by the African forces," Fabius said on Monday.
Asked whether the French could pull out of the fabled
city of Timbuktu and hand it to African forces as soon as Tuesday, Fabius
responded: "Yes, it could happen very fast. We are working on it because
our vocation is not to stay in the long term."
But it is far from clear that the African forces - much
less the weak Malian army - are ready for the withdrawal of thousands of French
troops, fighter planes and helicopters which would give the Africans full
responsibility against the Islamic extremists, who may strike the cities from
their desert hideouts.
Price increases
The price of food and fuel is rocketing up in areas of
northern Mali as a result of the conflict, the international aid organisation
Oxfam warned on Monday.
Many market traders of Arab or Tuareg descent fled the
area when French troops pushed out the Islamic extremists last week and the
traders have not returned for fear of reprisals, said Oxfam, in a statement.
"If traders do not come back soon and flows of food
into northern Mali remain as limited as they are now, then it is likely that
markets will not be properly stocked and prices will stay high - making it very
difficult for people to get enough food to feed their families," said
Philippe Conraud, Oxfam's country director in Mali.
"This phase of the war may almost be over, but the
battle to build peace and stability has only just begun," said Conraud.
"If people feel that their lives are at risk and
that their families are not safe, they will not return to Mali. It's as simple
as that."
- SAPA
