Mali rebels attract US attention

Military action will be needed to push radical Islamists out of northern Mali where they have carried out amputations and public floggings since seizing control earlier this year, a top American official said.

Johnnie Carson, US assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said Mali must also establish a “strong, credible government” so that its military is capable of leading the effort to liberate the north.

Al-Qaeda-linked militants in the north – including armed fighters who had fled south from Libya – took advantage of a power vacuum back in March when mutinous soldiers overthrew the democratically elected government. Over the past six months, the militants have begun imposing their own form of Sharia law.

“They are responsible for terrorism, for kidnapping, and for robbery. This is an issue that must be dealt with through security and military means,” claimed Mr Carson. “But any military action up there must indeed be well planned, well organised, well resourced, and well thought through. And it must, in fact, be agreed upon by those who are going to be most affected by it.”

For months, the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) has been calling for military intervention to help Malian forces retake the north from the Islamists.