Mali minister warns of global threat
2013-01-17 19:16
Brussels - Mali's Foreign Minister Tieman Coulibaly said on
Thursday that the presence of Islamists linked to al-Qaeda in the north of the
conflict-torn West African state constitutes a "global threat”.
"Today, it's a question of mobilising the international
community in its entirety to come to our help in our country, but also to come
to the aid of the whole region because what is happening in Mali represents a
global threat," Coulibaly told a press conference after joining emergency
talks with EU foreign ministers.
With reference to an ongoing raid on a remote desert gas
field in Algeria, where initial reports said dozens of hostages and kidnappers
died, the minister said that "jihadists" operating in the region were
part of an international "drug trafficking" organisation.
Simply a "criminal enterprise", he said adding
that their actions had "nothing to do with politics" and amounted to
a "genuine threat to civilisation”.
