Mali will ask international donors for nearly 2 billion euros (US$2.6 billion) to help rebuild the country and try to halt a resurgence of al-Qaeda-linked Islamists who were driven out of the major northern towns by a French-led offensive.
Paris launched a ground and air operation in its former colony in January to break the Islamist rebel hold on the northern two-thirds of the country, saying the militants posed a threat to the security of West Africa and Europe.
The rapid offensive took back most of the territory seized by the militants, but has failed to stop them from waging a guerrilla war.
On Friday, suspected Islamists carried out three suicide attacks on soldiers from Mali and Niger in northern Mali, wounding a Malian soldier. At least five bombers died.
In a document drawn up for an international donors’ conference in Brussels on Wednesday, the Malian government said it would be able to finance just more than half of a 4.34 billion euro plan for this year and next, but needed help with the rest.
“The international community is greatly needed to finance and implement the plan, up to a level of 1.96 billion euros,” the government said in the document, posted in French on the conference Web site.
“To get out of the crisis and to begin lasting development, Mali needs and depends on the technical and financial support of the international community,” it said.
The plan sets out 12 priorities, including keeping the peace, organizing credible elections and fighting corruption. Next week’s conference, organized by France and the EU, will aim to raise at least US$600 to US$700 million, diplomatic sources said.
Scheduled to attend are Malian interim president Dioncounda Traore, several other African leaders, French President Francois Hollande and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.
France is now looking to withdraw thousands of its troops and hand over security duties to a UN peacekeeping mission.
Donors who suspended assistance to Mali following a military coup in March last year have resumed budget support and project aid.
The EU has unblocked 250 million euros in frozen development aid and Paris has restored 150 million euros, including a 10 million euro emergency assistance fund to rebuild key services such as water and electricity.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
RSS