Saying that Africa has come of age and should be able to resolve its own problems without foreign assistance, President Alpha Conde of Guinea has slammed the current French military intervention in Mali.
Speaking on arrival home from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he attended the 20th Summit of the African Union (AU), President Conde said “the French military intervention in Mali is a ‘disgrace’ for Africa, 60 years after independence.”
He said the Africa’s inability to resolve its own problems would be tackled at the next Summit of the continental organization, scheduled for 25 May in Addis Ababa to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), now the African Union (AU).
“Even if the whole Africa has welcomed the French intervention in northern Mali, it is a shame for us that after 60 years of independence to resort to France to solve out problem,” he said.
However, President Conde acknowledged that if France had not intervened, the Islamic groups and other drug traffickers would pose a disaster for Mali, the entire sub-region and the world.
President Condé urged ECOWAS member countries to “take the bull by the horn”, saying the regional bloc should learn from the experience of Central Africa which had resolved the problem in Central African Republic (CAR) without resorting to the West.
The Guinean leader, who had recently announced that his country would send 125-strong troops to Mali to support the African contingent already deployed alongside the French military, said Guinea would make some meaningful contribution to the African-led International Support Mission to Mali (AFISMA). He did not specify how much Guinea would contribute.
