In the aftermath of France’s shock military intervention in embattled Mali,Newsdiaryonline.com reported at the Weekend that Nigeria,Senegal and Mali had deployed some troops already to Mali as part of ECOWAS intervention plan.
President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday confirmed that indeed ““Already our technical team is already in Mali ,so definitely the Nigerian troops will be in Mali before next week.” The president made the comment while addressing members of the Diplomatic Corps at the State House in Abuja.He said the full compliments of Nigerian troops will be moved into Mali before next week.
Said Jonathan,“We are confronted presently with a situation in Mali, let me assure you and the global community that as a nation, we will work with other nations to make sure that the problem in Mali is solved.
“Already our technical team is already in Mali so definitely the Nigerian troops will be in Mali before next week.
“Of course, we members of ECOWAS are meeting this weekend. Our expectation is that by next week most ECOWAS countries that pledged troops would have sent them so that our men will be on the ground to assist to liberate the country.
“We can no longer surrender any part of the globe to extremism, because it doesn’t pay and we don’t know the next victim. We must collectively discourage individuals or group of individuals that will take laws into their hands and make the world a place that is not safe for all of us.”
Speaking on Nigeria, the president said, “I’m not one to diminish the challenges my country faces and that is why we are strengthening democratic institutions. We have our challenges but we will continue to play our international role to restore peace”, he said.
Diplomatic sources told Newsdiaryonline.com that the duty of every nation’s technical team was to determine the area of operation for command and control purposes.Each country is always allocated what is referred to as a sector and there will be an overall liaison for effective operation.
