adminLaurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, said yesterday a peacekeep-ing force could be in place by April, incorporating troops being deployed under the banner of a West African intervention force, AFISMA, into a UN peacekeeping mission.
“From the moment that security is assured, we can envisage without changing the structures that it can be placed under the framework of UN peacekeeping operations,” Fabius said.
“This gives the advantage of being under the umbrella of the United Nations, under its financing,” he said.
France has deployed nearly 4 000 ground troops, as well as warplanes and armoured vehicles in its three-week-old Operation Serval that has broken the rebels’ 10-month grip on northern towns.
It is now due to gradually hand over to a UN-backed African force of about 8 000 troops, known as AFISMA, of which around 3 800 have already been deployed.
Gerard Araud, the French ambassador to the UN, said that he started discussions on the issue during closed council consultations on Mali, adding the potential UN force would deploy only when security conditions permit. “We have to wait several weeks before assessing the security environ-ment and taking the decision of deploying a peacekeeping operation,” he said.
On Tuesday, African and other world powers announced their support for deployment of the UN peacekeeping force to Mali, taking over responsibilities from African force.
Araud’s proposal comes as French and African forces battled the al-Qaeda-linked fighters outside Gao, northern Mali’s largest town.
French-led military forces are still fighting to secure the north of the country, and according to France’s defence minister they are facing significant resistance from the rebels.
Jean-Yves Le Drian, defence minister, described the desert campaign against the group as a “real war” that was far from won.
After driving fighters from north Mali’s main towns with three weeks of air strikes, France is now pursuing them in the remote north-east where pro-autonomy Tuaregs are pressing their own territorial claims.
French fighter jets continue to pound the area around the Adrar des Ifoghas massif in the far north-east, a craggy mountain landscape honey-combed with caves where the fighters are believed to have fled with seven French hostages.
Le Drian said that French and Malian joint patrols were searching the scrubland outside the desert trading towns of Timbuktu and Gao. Residents of Gao said on Tuesday that the town was hit by rockets fired from outside the city.
Meanwhile, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) — one of the armed groups — said it had attacked military positions in Gao.
“The combat isn’t over. The attacks are going to continue,” MUJAO’s Abou Dardar told the AFP news agency.
With just 4 000 ground troops in an area the size of Texas, France has appealed for the swift deployment of a UN-backed African military force (AFISMA) to help secure the region, but this has been slowed by lack of transport and equipment.
French troops in the north are cooperating with the pro-autonomy MNLA, a group that represents mainly Tuareg people, who say they have occupied the remote northeastern town of Kidal and surrounding areas after the other rebels fled French air strikes into the nearby Adrar des Ifoghas mountains.
Dioncounda Traore, the interim Malian president, has offered talks to the MNLA if they do not seek full independence, and says he is aiming to hold national elections in the country by 31 July.
France on Tuesday said that several hundred al-Qaeda-linked fighters have been killed in its military operations in Mali since the intervention began on 11 January.
The French military’s sole fatality so far has been a helicopter pilot killed at the start of the military operation 27 days ago.
Mali said 11 of its troops were killed and 60 wounded after the battle at Konna last month but has not since released a new death toll. — Al Jazeera
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