Russia arming Mali, more attacks feared
GAO, Mali (AFP) – Russia revealed Wednesday it was supplying guns to Mali’s government, as French troops defused a massive bomb in the north of the country, the latest bid by the rebels to strike back.
The head of Russia’s arms export agency said it had delivered small amounts of light weapons for the West African nation’s poorly equipped and deeply divided army.
French soldiers patrol near an abandoned house where they found and defused a homemade bomb containing 1,300 pounds of explosives on February 13 in the centre of northern Mali’s largest city Gao. AFP
“We are in talks about sending more, in small quantities,” said Rosoboron export chief Anatoly Isaikin, quoted by the Interfax news agency.
In the centre of the northern city of Gao, the scene of twin suicide bombings and a street battle in recent days, French troops defused a homemade bomb they said contained 600 kilogrammes (1,300 pounds).
The bomb, four metal barrels filled with explosives and connecting wires, was in the courtyard of an abandoned house and had been there since at least Monday, according to an AFP correspondent at the scene.
The United Nations said Wednesday it was working on a “regional strategy” for the Sahel, the semi-arid region south of the Sahara desert. Analysts say a dangerous mix of extremism, kidnapping, drug trafficking and organised crime is fuelling the unrest there.
Mali’s army is struggling to restore security after a French-led military intervention helped it push out al-Qaeda-linked rebels who had seized the country’s north.
Romano Prodi, the UN’s special envoy for the Sahel, and UN West Africa representative Said Djinnit began a three-day visit to the region Wednesday to discuss the situation in Mali with the presidents of its neighbours Senegal, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Niger.
On Tuesday, UN rights chief Navi Pillay warned that Mali risked descending into a cycle of violence.
The problem, she said, was not just rebel groups but also the army and black majority who have carried out reprisal attacks on light-skinned Tuaregs and Arabs accused of supporting the insurgents.
