
The French military has consolidated its position in Mali, Sunday, Jan. 20, in accordance with the goal of “total conquest” of the country partly occupied by armed Islamists while several capitals responded to the call for increased international assistance. “We will not leave pockets” of resistance, said Sunday the minister of the French defense? Ais Jean-Yves Le Drian, who, however, hoped that the African regional force is being deployed rapidly “relay” of ‘French Intervention? comfortable.
Mr Le Drian also assured the string of TV France 5 that seven French hostages? Ais Sahel were “alive”, shortly after a meeting with the families of their French President Fran? Ois Hollande. He added about the comfortable French military intervention in Mali: it was “a hostage to prevent more, Mali.” He said there were “contacts with the hostage-takers,” which are not the same for every Frenchman retained.
He also said that the taking of hostages in Algeria was “an act of war” because of the number of persons detained. “What strikes me the most [is that] hostage is said,” but when there are so many people involved, I think it is an act of war, “he told the string of TV France 5.
DIABALI DOES “NOT” RECOVERY SUMMER
On the ground, the French military? Ais intensify their response to heart tees a Malian army under-equipped. “The deployment of forces to the north of the operation ‘Serval’ started there are twenty-four hours is underway to cities Niono and S??var??, where they arrived,” said Lieutenant Colonel Emmanuel endorser, communication advisor of French military in Mali. Niono (350 km northeast of Bamako) is located 60 km south of Diabali, locality, taken Monday by the Islamists who, according to the Malian army, were abandoned after the French bombing? Ais.
Mr Le Drian said Sunday Diabali had “not yet” taken over by the Malian forces. “Everything suggests that the evolution of Diabali will be positive in the coming hours,” he added, however.
S??var??, located 630 km northeast of Bamako, which has an airport, is a key city where operations can be carried further north. It is only 50 km from Konna, taken on Thursday by the Malian army jihadists. Konna, fell on January 10, had precipitated the intervention of France who feared a breakthrough Islamic groups linked to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) to the south and Bamako.
2000 MEMBERS MISMA BY JANUARY 26
New countries have responded to requests for Sunday logistics and financial support from the Economic Community of West African (ECOWAS) for the deployment of Misma (International Support Mission in Mali). Berlin, which has already announced the dispatch of two transport aircraft, has promised additional financial assistance to African countries in the donors’ meeting held on 29 January in Addis Ababa. Moscow has proposed to France to carry troops or French property? Ais while Canada would cover part of the transport of the African force in Mali.
Members of ECOWAS states were asked to provide them “without delay” the promised troops to the force which re? U UN mandate to help Mali to resume embroidered with its northern part occupied for more nine months by armed Islamist groups who are multiplied abuses.
Some 2,000 members of the Misma must be made by 26 January. More than 150 soldiers have arrived in Bamako, with fifty of the 500 Senegalese promised Dakar. Chadian President Idriss Deby, on Sunday visited the first contingent of 200 Chadian soldiers in 2000 promised, stationed on a military base in Niamey (Niger) before they go to Mali. Chadians, seasoned and experienced in combat in the desert, should make a strong appreciation for Misma.
ATROCITIES denounced in Bamako
In Nigeria, the Islamist group claimed Sunday Ansaru an attack that killed two Nigerian soldiers the day before, saying he acted in retaliation for Nigeria’s commitment to provide 1,200 men for intervention in Mali. Two thousand French soldiers? Ais are already deployed and their number will reach 2,500, maybe more, depending Paris.
The armed Islamist group Ansar Dine said Sunday that killed 60 Malian soldiers and killed two French helicopters? Ais since January 10, recognizing the loss of eight “mujahedeen.” Malian authorities had reported the death of eleven soldiers in fighting around Konna, while Paris announced the death of a helicopter pilot.
Several sources report a decline in Islamic countries to the center of Kidal in the far north-east, 1,500 km from Bamako. Kidal was the first city conquered in March 2012, the Tuareg rebels and Islamists, who subsequently ousted their former allies.
In Bamako, representatives of Arab and Tuareg communities in Mali Sunday denounced abuses against them, after the liberation of towns and villages that had been made by the jihadists. They have also been reported by Human Rights Watch, which evokes “murder.” Mali’s interim president, Traore, launched a warning against any “exaction” in a call echoed Sunday by the head of French diplomacy? Comfortable, Laurent Fabius.
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