Buyoya given key Mali role

[iolsa]

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



IOLSA