Libya arranges West African cease-fire

Press, 28 December 1985, Page 5

Libya arranges West African cease-fire

NZPA-Reuter London The west African states of Mali and Bourkino Fasso had agreed to cease hostilities, the Libyan Foreign Secretary, Dr Ali AbdelSalam Tureiki, said on Ouagadougou radio yesterday. Dr Tureiki, who hjis been shuttling between Ouagadougou, the Bourkinabe capital, and the Malian capital of Bamako in search of a settlement to the growing desert conflict, said that the cease-fire would start at midnight local time (1 p.m., NZDT).

The radio report, which was monitored in London by the 8.8. C., quoted Dr Tureiki as saying that Mali’s President General Moussa Traore, and Borkina Fasso’s head of State, Captain Thomas Sankara, had also agreed to withdraw their troops from each other’s territory. Dr Tureiki said, “I am very pleased to announce that from midnight the hostilities will cease between both countries and that the two countries will also pull out their troops.” He said that Libya’s leader, Colonel Muammar Gadaffi, had invited the two leaders to send envoys to Tripoli, its capital, to discuss their dispute. The Malian Government also reported earlier that border clashes had left 20 Bourkinabe nationals and one Malian dead.

It said that Malian troops had also captured a “Bourkinabe commando group with all its weapons, proceeding to Dioulouna,” one of four villages reported to have been attacked by Mali on Wednesday.