Monday, March 04, 2013

Abayomi Azikiwe, PANW Editor, Featured on Press TV World News: 'Economic Crisis In West Triggers Mali Invasion'

Economic crisis in West triggers Mali
invasion: Abayomi Azikiwe

To watch this interview with Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, on Press TV World News, just click on the website below:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/03/03/291753/imperialist-west-gangs-up-to-steal-mali/

Sun Mar 3, 2013 6:37PM GMT

An analyst says that the alliance of imperialist Western countries, all in economic depression at home, have violently invaded Mali to seize its riches to take back home.

In the background of this a lot of civilians have already died or been displaced in the fighting in Mali since French-led invasion forces landed in January this year. A deteriorating humanitarian situation has been raised by locals.

The militants the French and other allied countries are fighting are the same al-Qaeda linked groups they themselves funded and fought alongside in Libya. It is reported that Qatar is still funding these forces to the angst for the French.

Press TV has interviewed Abayomi Azikiwe, editor Pan African News Wire, about this issue. The following is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: In the beginning Paris said they were going to be in and out very quickly and now we’re looking at three months and it is raging. Is that a sign that they mis-planned or are things going actually planned for them?

Azikiwe: It was a very disingenuous proposition initially when French forces intervened in Mali on January 11th. It was quite obvious that the resistance would be somewhat formidable inside the country.

Now with the intervention of not only France but also allied forces from various African states, it has just exacerbated the conflict inside the county.

They initially, as you’ve mentioned, said it would be only a few weeks; they said they would pull out in the next month. Now they are saying that they’re not going to pull out until July.

They also mentioned just this last past week that there is going to be the development of a so-called Rapid Response Force of which no one really knows exactly what that is going to entail, but it indicates that it is going to be a long term intervention in the West African state of Mali.

This is going to be disastrous not only for the people in Mali itself, but also throughout the entire region of West Africa, as well as spilling over into North Africa because we saw what happened in January in Algeria and this was clearly related to the French military intervention in Mali.

Press TV: From the perspective of Paris with their economic pressure that they’re going through in France, how can they even afford a war like this unless perhaps they are planning on taking control of some of the natural resources there?

Azikiwe: This is obviously fueling the intervention by France. Britain, Germany as well as the United States and Canada, in Africa. All of these countries are in dire economic straits. In France the unemployment rate is skyrocketing, their national deficit is also rising very fast.

And we see the same situation here inside the United States with the sequester of the US Congress and the fact that $US85 billion has been cut from the national budget overnight. We’re in a situation right now where we’re going to be facing a deeper economic recession. This of course fuels the Pentagon as well as Wall Street to intervene in these states in Africa to try and shore up their losses, on the continent.

But the down side to it is that they’re going to be met by fierce resistance on the part of the forces that they have targeted inside of Mali and they’re also going to inflame other political forces inside the country.

We’ve seen the obliteration of dozens of Chadian troops in the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains in the northeast of Mali on the border with Algeria. There’s going to be more casualties and it’s just a very bad situation that these imperialist states are placing their own people as well the peoples of Africa.

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