France will only end its
intervention in
Mali when political stability
and an election process have been restored to the chaotic west African country
and Islamist groups have been wiped out, the French president said on Tuesday,
raising the prospect of a drawn-out engagement on hostile desert terrain.
The French defence minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said a "relentless" fight
with Islamists was continuing on Tuesday night and France would stay "as long as
necessary".
Mali is in political disarray after a coup last year and the fall of the vast
northern desert to Islamist groups who operate a drug trafficking and kidnap
economy in several Sahel countries.
French air raids continued
"day and night" in the vast area seized by the Islamist alliance, which combines
al-Qaida's north African wing, AQIM, with Mali's home-grown Movement for Oneness
and Jihad in west
Africa (Mojwa) and Ansar Dine
rebel groups.
Le Drian described an implacable fight against Islamists who were "agile,
determined, well-equipped, well-trained" and could easily hide in the
desert.
He said that since Saturday, round-the-clock French air raids had been aimed
at stopping the Islamist advance southwards towards the capital, Bamako, and
destroying training camps, command structures and any rear bases in the
north.
Airstrikes were continuing across a swath of territory east and west of the
Niger river. But he said that in the town of Diabaly, which had seen an air
offensive throughout Monday night, Islamists were still "very present" and
threatened the south of the country. Diabaly is 220 miles (350km) from
Bamako.
Le Drian said the town of Konna, which fell to the Islamists last Thursday
triggering the sudden French intervention on Friday, had still not been retaken
by the Malian army. The Red Cross said the army had sustained casualties.
France is to boost the 1,700 of its troops engaged in the mission, including
800 soldiers already on the ground, to 2,500.
West African armies are scrambling to join the operation, brought forward by
France's bombing campaign to stop the rebel advance.
On a visit to United Arab
Emirates, President
François Hollande
said France had three aims: to stop the rebel advances, to secure Bamako and to
help the Mali government regain control of the whole country. He said France
would take a lesser role "as soon as there is an African force, in coming days
or weeks", adding that France did not intend to stay.
In response to questions about a return to France's controversial and shadowy
role pulling strings in its former colonies, Hollande said the Mali
intervention, in an international legal framework with UN backing, had nothing
to do with the practices of "a bygone era". He said: "France should only
intervene in Africa in exceptional circumstances and for a limited time. That's
what we will do."
But he added that France's role was to ensure that "when we end our
intervention, Mali is safe, has legitimate authorities, an electoral process and
there are no more terrorists threatening its territory".
Asked what France intended to do with the Islamists, Hollande said: "Destroy
them. Take them captive, if possible."
West African defence chiefs met in Bamako to approve plans to speed up the
deployment of 3,300 regional troops, foreseen in a UN-backed intervention plan
to be led by Africans. Troops from the Ecowas grouping of west African states
are expected to be deployed within a week to bolster the Malian army.
Nigeria, which is due to lead the African mission, pledged to deploy soldiers
within 24 hours, but with its own army under pressure on several fronts and the
sudden Mali intervention leaving little time for planing, Nigeria had already
cautioned that even if some troops arrive in Mali swiftly, their training and
equipping will take more time.
The UN refugee agency said the clashes in northern Mali were adding to the
already large numbers of displaced people.
The agency spokesman, Adrian Edwards, said 1,230 refugees from Mali had
arrived in Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania as a result of recent clashes
between the French-backed Malian army and the rebel groups. More than 144,000
fled to neighbouring countries in 2012, and nearly 200,000 in northern Mali were
displaced within the country.
Earlier on Tuesday the French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said the
current level of the French involvement in Mali would go on for "a matter of
weeks".
But a Mojwa commander taunted the French, telling Associated Press: "I would
advise France not to sing their victory song too quickly. They managed to leave
Afghanistan. They will never leave Mali."
Oumar Ould Hamaha said: "It's to our advantage that they send in French
troops on foot. We are waiting for them. And what they should know is that every
French soldier that comes into our territory should make sure to prepare his
will beforehand, because he will not leave alive."
In Lisbon, the US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, said no American troops
would be put on the ground in Mali. The US is providing intelligence-gathering
assistance to the French, and officials would not rule out having American
aircraft land there to provide airlift and logistical support. Panetta said the
US was still working through the details of assistance it would provide
France.
A meeting of EU foreign ministers on Thursday is expected to define what kind
of support will be provided to the African mission in Mali.
The Mali government contradicted other reports that the Islamists who seized
control of Diabaly had entered the country from Mauritania. "The people in
Diabaly are bandits who fled there from the north," Manga Dembele, the minister
of communication, told the Guardian at the government headquarters in Bamako.
"They have come to seek refuge in the town and they are hiding in the
population."
But relations with Mauritania to Mali's west and Algeria to the north have
been fraught in recent months, with accusations that both countries have
harboured Islamists who crossed over porous desert borders to stock up on
supplies.
"We are not worried that the Islamists will arrive in Bamako," said
Dembele.
Responding to questions about the apparent lack of security in the capital
where government offices and ministries have little security and are accessible
to members of the public. Dembele said the situation in the city was under
control.
Dembele sought to calm increasing anxiety in Bamako about the existence of
Islamist "sleeper cells", which it is feared could launch an attack on the city
in response to the mounting campaign against them in the north.
