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PARIS,
August 29, 2009 – France will not let Al-Qaeda acquire a foothold in
Africa, President Nicolas Sarkozy warned on Wednesday, vowing that Paris
would help fight the extremist group.
“We will mobilize to support Africa faced with the growing threat from
Al-Qaeda, whether in the Sahel or in Somalia,” Sarkozy said in a foreign
policy speech to French ambassadors in Paris.
“What happened these past months in Mali, in Niger and Mauritania is a
very clear signal,” he said, referring to a string of incidents
targeting Western interests in north and west Africa.
“France will not let Al-Qaeda set up a sanctuary on our doorstep in
Africa. That message, too, must be clearly heard.”
The Islamist network’s north African wing, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic
Maghreb (AQIM), has recently extended its operations from Algeria into
neighboring states.
The Al-Qaeda branch grew out of Algeria’s radical Salafist Group for
Preaching and Combat and has repeatedly threatened French targets.
The group claimed responsibility for an August 8 suicide bombing near
the French embassy in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott, in which two
French gendarmes were lightly wounded.
It also claimed the kidnapping of six Westerners in Niger and Mali late
last year.
Source: AFP, August 27, 2009
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