China Offers Support to Mali Military in Combat with Islamists.

China told her i would support Mali’s military in its combat with Islamist rebels who have seized northern areas, said Guo Xueli, charge d’affaires with the Chinese Embassy.

“China firmly supports the career of Mali, ” Guo said in the interview on state television yesterday inside the capital, Bamako. “We are going to bring our assistance to the actual extent possible, specifically in the military where we already possess a old cooperation. ”

Mali’s government have been battling Islamist rebels in the north of the country since they took control of the area from separatist ethnic Touareg fighters in May. The rebels took selling point of a political crisis in the south triggered with the ouster of President Amadou Toure in a very March 22 coup.

The transitional government, led by Dioncounda Traore, has been bogged down by internal power struggles and disagreement within the need for foreign troops near your vicinity, according to the Brussels-based Global Crisis Group.

The interim president earlier this month formally wanted military help from the Economical Community of West African Expresses. The United Nations Security Local authority or council said on Sept. 21 it will eventually consider a request from the actual 15-nation Ecowas for military intervention from the Islamists.

France, Mali’s former colonial ruler, offered to provide logistical assistance to any West African operation to retake control of north Mali, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said yesterday.