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Bamako: France plans to add to its 750 troops now in Mali until an
African-led force is in place to help Mali's army battle the Islamist militants
who control the country's north.
President Francois Hollande said Tuesday it could take a
week for the West African troops to deploy.
He also said French jets carried out another round of air strikes
overnight against the rebels, who are pushing into new areas to the south.
Sonny Ugoh, communications director for the Economic
Community of West African States, says that some of the 3,000 troops authorised
by the United Nations Security Council last month will arrive as early as
Tuesday.
Initially, those forces had not been expected before
September, but Ugoh says ECOWAS members have expressed a need for urgency after
militants pressed an offensive that included capturing the town of Diabaly on
Monday.
French United Nations Ambassador Gerard Araud said Monday
that a Nigerian general who will lead the African force is already in the
Malian capital, Bamako. The neighboring
countries of Niger, Burkina Faso and Senegal also promise to send troops.
France deployed forces in Mali on Friday. Araud says the government decided to offer
military help because it was worried the rebels could possibly take the
capital.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Monday welcomes the
French-led military intervention, saying he hopes the action will help to stop
the rebels' offensive.
Al-Qaida-linked Islamic extremists seized control of
northern Mali soon after renegade soldiers toppled the government in March,
leaving a temporary power vacuum. The
militants have imposed harsh conservative Islamic law across the north.
Mali is a former French colony and France still has a
variety of economic and political interests there.
Mali's interim President Dioncounda Traore has declared a
state of emergency and has called on every Malian to help in the war effort.
-VOA