French Deputy Foreign Minister Pascal Canfin has said that humanitarian and development issues will be on top of the agenda after the military issue will have been resolved in Mali.
The French deputy minister held talks on Wednesday evening in Quodadougou with Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore and the EU Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, Kristalina Georgieva, on Mali crisis, a statement from the Burkina Faso presidency said on Thursday.
During the meeting, the statement said, Canfin explained that France intervened in Mali urgently to stop the rebels from advancing to Bamako.
He hailed the involvement of the Burkina Faso troops that have been deployed to Mali under the auspices of the International Support Mission for Mali (MISMA).
It's in this regard that Canfin justified the presence in the Ouagadougou meeting of the European Union commissioner for international cooperation, humanitarian aid and conflict management.
Regarding the importance of the political dialogue that has been initiated by Compaore on behalf of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Canfin said that the mediation of the regional body will take "a new form" when the situation on the ground will have changed.
To restore long-lasting stability in Mali, Canfin recommended that it was important first to win the ongoing military intervention.
"To restore peace, we need to go beyond the military intervention," Canfin said while also proposing that lasting peace can only be achieved if all stakeholders will meet and hold political negotiations.
On her part, Georgieva expressed her gratitude to Burkina Faso for having left its borders open and for having received Malian refugees.
Official statistics show that there are over 10,000 Malian refugees who have arrived in Burkina Faso since the outbreak of the war in Mali.
Georgieva asked Burkina Faso to prepare for an influx of more Malian refugees given reports by humanitarian workers that there could be an outbreak of inter-ethnic clashes in parts of Mali. |