AFRICA/MALI - "It is necessary to stabilize the south of Libya in order to stop the attacks in Mali", said the Secretary of the Bishops' Conference

Monday, 6 October 2014

Bamako (Agenzia Fides) - "The international community needs to seriously take into consideration the problem regarding the stability of Libya, because the armed groups operating in the north of Mali take refuge in southern Libya and then return to our Country to carry out deadly attacks", says to Fides Agency Fr. Edmond Dembele, Secretary General of the Episcopal Conference of Mali, where, on 3 October, 9 Nigerian peacekeepers of the UN Mission MINUSMA lost their lives in an attack that was claimed by the "Mouvement pour l'unicité et le jihad en Afrique et de l'Ouest" (MUJAO).
The latter is one of the armed groups that were expelled from the cities of northern Mali by French troops of the Serval operation. "These groups take refuge in neighboring Countries, especially in Libya", explains Fr. Dembele. "Therefore if the south of Libya is not stabilized, neighboring countries such as Mali and Niger will suffer attacks", the priest said, adding: "in Mali many think that another reason for the renewed dynamism of the armed groups in the north the Country results from the reduction of the French military commitment in the area. The Serval force was replaced by the Barkhane force, which is less engaged on the ground than the first. Since May the Malian army has simply limited itself in controlling the great northern cities, such as Timbuktu and Gao, but abandoned the secondary cities".
The hope, concludes Fr. Dembele, "is entrusted to the ongoing negotiations in Algiers to get Mali out of the crisis". (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 06/10/2014)


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