Mali crisis: UN calls for ‘swift deployment’

The UN Security Council has called for a “swift deployment” of an international force to Mali. The call comes after Islamist militants said they had entered the key central town of Konna, advancing further into government-held territory.The UN has approved plans to send 3,000 African troops to Mali to recapture the desert north now controlled by the militants. Mali’s president has asked the UN and France for help, diplomats say.The US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, asked whether the Malian president Dioncounda Traore had requested specific kinds of military support, said: “It wasn’t specific, but it basically said, ‘Help, France!’.”France - the former colonial power - would respond to the request yesterday, France’s UN ambassador Gerard Araud said following an emergency meeting of the Security Council.For logistical reasons, the African force already approved by the UN was not expected to begin its offensive before September or October.The UN resolution also calls for peace talks between the government and rebels, in an attempt to separate them from the foreign extremists. These were set to begin this month, but the renewed fighting threatens their chances of success.Some European leaders have voiced concerns that Jihadists could use Mali’s vast Islamist-controlled area to launch attacks on Europe. ‘Global crisis’The latest fighting is the most serious since the militants captured the north from government forces in April 2012. A spokesman for the Ansar Dine militant group, Sanda Abu Mohammed, said their fighters had driven out government forces from Konna, about 700km north-east of Bamako. “We are actually in Konna for the jihad [holy war],” he is quoted by AFP news agency as saying.The army has not commented on the claim. Earlier, army sources had said soldiers had advanced on Douentza, a central town held by another Islamist group. A resident in Douentza said no fighting had so far taken place for control of the town, about 800km north-east of the capital, Bamako. It was still in the hands of the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, the resident said. On Tuesday, AU chairman Thomas Boni Yayi asked Nato to send forces to Mali to fight the Islamists. He said the Malian conflict was a global crisis which required Nato to intervene.