Nigeria goes to war in Mali

Culled from Sun

Nigeria yesterday commenced deployment of troops as part of its contribution to the Africa-led International Support to Mali codenamed AFISMA to enforce peace in the West African country which had almost fallen to the rebels. The rebels are mainly Al Qaeda and Islamist jihadist groups which had seized almost half of the country. Last week, President Dionconda Traore had cried to the United Nations (UN) to help save the nation.


France, Mali’s colonial master, responded with the deployment of ground troops, armoured tanks and fighter jets as they bombarded rebel strongholds. Other countries including the European Union (EU) are pledging men and material support. Yesterday, Nigeria joined the international community to stop the march of terrorists in the region by supplying 906 soldiers.

In fact, President Goodluck Jonathan said yesterday that Nigeria is facing daunting security challenges and given its proximity to the Sahel region, the Mali crisis, if not brought under control, may spill over to Nigeria and other West African countries with negative consequences on our collective security, political stability and development efforts. He said: “ As a responsible member of the international community and given my recent experiences with insurgency and terrorist activities especially in the northern part of the country, I felt compelled to urgently approve the deployment of Nigerian troops.”