GENEVA: A leader of one of the militant groups controlling northern Mali has warned the West against sending troops in to reconquer the zone in an interview with two European newspapers. Senda Ould Bouamama, known as Abou Muhammad, a local head of Ansar Dine and spokesman for the movement, told Swiss paper Le Temps and Belgian paper Le Soir in an interview published Monday that the international community should know better than to interfere in Mali.
“Western countries have learned lessons from their interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan where they are now starting to pull out and African countries have failed in all their military interventions, as we are seeing right now in Somalia,” he said. “(The West) is intelligent enough not to take the risk of being ridiculed once again here.”
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has repeatedly proposed sending an intervention force to Mali to help authorities take back the desert north, seized by Al-Qaeda-linked rebels after a military coup that toppled Mali’s elected President Amadou Toumani Toure in March. ECOWAS has sought support from the UN Security Council, which has asked for precise details of the envisaged intervention. According to Abou Muhammad, Ansar Dine group is impervious to threats of a Western-backed invasion. Ansar Dine would not for the moment seek to control other areas, added Abou Muhammad, saying the group preferred to “consolidate our presence in the region that we already control”.
The group, which earlier this month appeared more conciliatory, declaring it would support mediation efforts by Burkina Faso, said it would help to free Western hostages held by other armed groups “if officially asked”. Mali’s interim President Dioncounda Traore announced Monday that he had formed a national unity government, a much-awaited move that observers hope may restore some stability to the country.
