EU states agree on military training mission to Mali
Worldwide, Daily news | ankakh | January 17, 2013 19:10
European Union states agreed on Thursday to send hundreds of military personnel to train Mali government forces in fighting Islamist rebels, whose campaign to impose Islamic law across north Africa is causing growing unease in Western capitals.
The training mission has been the subject of discussions for weeks but the sense of urgency has grown since the al Qaeda-linked rebels pushed beyond their stronghold in northern Mali to threaten the capital Bamako and France launched air strikes to drive them back.
Foreign ministers of the EU’s 27 governments took the decision to set up the mission at an emergency meeting in Brussels to discuss the crisis in the Sahara.
The EU’s mission, which it aims to launch by mid-February, will comprise about 200 to 250 military trainers as well as some security personnel, although the exact number will be decided following a security assessment in the coming days.
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