The principal officer in charge of the US Department of State's Bureau for African Affairs said on 22 February that he expects an increase in government support to help restore peace and democracy in troubled nations, including Mali, that have fallen prey to Islamist radicals.
"We expect we will respond appropriately to threats that emerge in Africa," Ambassador Johnnie Carson, assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of African Affairs, told reporters during a roundtable discussion in Washington. "We will continue to increase our support and assistance to beat that threat."
For the last month, the United States has been providing logistical support to French troops in Mali, where Islamist radicals have been infiltrating the northern region of the country after the democratically elected president was ousted by a military coup in March 2012.
The French intervened with military forces on 11 January to free Mali's northern towns that had been captured by the Islamist militants, part of a group called Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). The French and West African troops recaptured all three major cities in northern Mali and have also pushed AQIM out of small towns and back up into mountains, said Carson.
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