Mali: UN takes up intervention plan

The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday 26 September began to debate a plan to deploy West African peacekeeping troops to tackle the six-month Islamist insurgency in northern Mali. At the Security Council, both the United States and France forcefully backed the call for greater international involvement, as did several African leaders. But while France, the former colonial power in Mali, has for months spearheaded the push for foreign military involvement, the United States has been reluctant to formally back such an operation.