Paris: France said on Tuesday that its forces were engaged in heavy fighting in northern Mali and that many rebels had been killed in recent clashes.
“The fighting is fierce and is continuing as we speak,” Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told RTL radio in a morning interview, adding that fighting was concentrated in the Ifoghas mountains.
He said there had been “many, many rebels deaths” but refused to provide specific numbers.
Le Drian said France’s military intervention in Mali had cost more than €100 million (Dh481 million) since it was launched in mid-January.
Meanwhile, firearms amassed during the war in Libya and corrupt officials selling or renting out their guns have helped arm the rebels in Mali, a UN report showed, saying most of the weapons used in the conflict initially came from licit sources.
In a report on transnational organised crime in west Africa, the UN said “the primary source of arms appears to be official state stocks”, channelled onto the region’s black market through theft and bribed law enforcement officials.
“Criminals seem to be able to get what they need from the local security forces, buying or renting weapons from corrupt elements in the police and military,” it said, establishing that “firearms trafficking has fuelled a rebellion in northern Mali.”
