Mali to authorize Burkinabe army to pursue terrorists on its territory

Malian president Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta is considering authorizing the Burkinabe army to chase terrorist groups into Malian territory when they retreat after attacks.

Boubacar Keïta announced this measure on Sunday when he visited Burkina Faso to show solidarity after the “cowardly assassination” of 12 Burkinabe soldiers at the Malian border.

“It is unacceptable to kill with impunity in Burkina Faso and then finding refuge quietly in Mali, surely not. So that will be part of the things we have to look at in the days to come,” Keïta told the media in Ouagadougou, in the presence of his Burkina Faso counterpart Roch Marc Christian Kaboré.

“Their movement from one border to another is obvious and all that we can do in terms of cooperation, we will do it,” the Malian president said at the Ouagadougou International Airport from the summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Abuja, Nigeria.

On Friday, the 12 Burkinabe soldiers were killed in a terrorist attack against an army unit based in northern Burkina Faso, some thirty kilometers from the Malian border.

Mali is still struggling on its territory against terrorist groups, which occupied the north of the country in 2012 before they were dispersed by an ongoing international armed intervention.