[ 2012-07-14 ]

Mali crisis 'one of biggest challenges' for Africa
ADDIS ABABA (AFP) - Mali's crisis is one of the
most serious challenges facing the continent,
African Union commission leader Jean Ping told a
meeting of heads of state in Ethiopia on
Saturday.

The vast desert north of Mali has been taken over
by Al Qaeda-linked Islamist militants in the
aftermath of a March military coup in the southern
capital Bamako, raising fears of a new regional
haven for extremists.

"The situation in Mali is one of the most serious
situations our continent is confronted with," Ping
said at the start of a closed-door meeting on Mali
and on tensions between Sudan and the year-old
breakaway nation South Sudan.

He said Mali's crisis "imperils the very existence
of Mali as a nation".

Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouatarra, the AU
peace and security council chair, said the
conference "condemns the aim of the terrorist
groups to turn northern Mali into a sanctuary and
a coordination centre for terrorist groups on the
continent such as AQIM, MUJAO, Boko Haram and
al-Shebab."

The Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa
(MUJAO) is an armed group presented as an offshoot
of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram has since 2009
stepped up attacks on government and Christian
targets, while Somalia's Shebab Islamists,
fighting to overthrow the weak, Western-backed
government, still stage guerrilla attacks despite
having lost ground to African Union troops in
recent months.

Ouatarra said the four militant groups "constitute
a serious threat to regional and international
peace and security".

In Mali, Islamist fighters took advantage of the
chaos following a military coup in March to seize
key towns in the north.

The jihadists fought alongside, but then chased
off, separatist Tuareg rebels, and have since
enforced strict Islamic law and destroyed ancient
World Heritage sites they consider idolatrous in
the fabled city of Timbuktu.

At the summit in Addis Ababa, the leaders
underlined the need to restore security in Mali's
north and noted that the nation's political
situation is further complicated by the absence of
interim president Dioncounda Traore who has been
in Paris since May 23 seeking medical treatment.

Ouatarra reiterated an earlier call by west
African leaders to the UN Security Council "for
the speedy adoption of a resolution authorising
the deployment of troops in Mali under Chapter
Seven of the UN charter".

A west African group of nations has said it is
ready to send a 3,300-troop force to help restore
order in Mali if it has UN backing.

On the conflict between Sudan and South Sudan --
the other issue on the agenda for Saturday's
meeting -- Ping said progress at AU-backed peace
talks between the two countries "has been slow and
maybe even a little uneven".

He said Thabo Mbeki, the former South African
president and AU lead mediator between the two
Sudans, would present a report to the summit.

The AU and UN have passed resolutions urging the
rivals to reach deals on security, oil sharing
revenues and border demarcation by August 2.

Talks have dragged on in recent weeks, and
although Khartoum and Juba, which just celebrated
the nation's first birthday, agreed to a cessation
of hostilities at the last round of talks, no
concrete deals have been forged.

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir attended the
opening session. His northern counterpart Omar
al-Bashir arrived a little later. Both leaders
left in the mid-afternoon, a few minutes apart,
without making any comment.

Ping said Africa's recent geopolitical situation
had been "mixed."

Among other flashpoints he cited the east of the
Democratic Republic of Congo where a group of army
mutineers known as M23 recently seized a string of
small towns from the regular army.

The heads of state and government are meeting on
peace and security issues ahead of a two-day
summit starting Sunday at which they will try to
break their deadlock on the choice of a new
commission chairman.

Source - AFP

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