Mali 'terror threat' warning given to Africa

Mali could become a home for terrorist groups which could threaten the region, France’s president has warned.

Francois Hollande was reacting to the concerns of Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufou over information relating to Islamist groups. Mr Issoufou said he had information showing that Malian rebels were being trained by jihadists from Pakistan and Afghanistan. He said he intended to ask the UN to allow troops to be dispatched to Mali. He said West African countries would ask the UN Security Council to provide oversee an operation with logistical assistance from France and the United States. President Hollande said he would support the move, but that Niger and its neighbours must take the lead. “If an intervention is decided upon, it’s for the Africans to lead it – France, like other powers, putting themselves at the service of the United Nations,” Mr Hollande said, according to the AFP news agency. “There is outside intervention that is destabilising Mali and setting up groups whose vocation goes well beyond Mali, in Africa and perhaps beyond,” he said. As the the former colonial power, France retains strong ties to both Mali and neighbouring Niger.