BAMAKO: Mali´s government refuses to talk to “terrorist” groups, the foreign minister has said, after jihadists and allied separatists mounted widespread attacks that have rocked the ruling junta.
The coordinated deadly offensive by Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists and Tuareg separatists on April 25 and 26 targeted strategic towns and killed the country´s influential defence minister, while the jihadists have since imposed a blockade on the capital Bamako.
“The government of Mali does not envisage any dialogue with the lawless terrorist armed groups that bear responsibility for the tragic events our people have been experiencing for years,” Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop said, meeting the country´s diplomats on Thursday.
The junta-led west African country has grappled with more than a decade of violence and last month´s attacks were reminiscent of a crisis that rocked Mali in 2012.
