Addis Ababa - Former Burundi president Pierre Buyoya was on Thursday named as the African Union's High Representative for Mali and the Sahel.
The two-time president will work with an AU mission soon to open in Bamako with the aim of helping the country out of a crisis that has seen a vast swathe of the north fall under the control of Islamists and rebel groups following a March coup, an AU statement said.
Buyoya was president of Burundi from 1987 to 1993 and 1996 to 2003.
The AU on Wednesday re-admitted Mali after suspending it from the pan-African bloc following the coup.
Western governments are fearful that northern Mali could become a sanctuary for Islamic extremists. - Sapa-AFP
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