Jonathan seeks international funds for Mali war

Funding of the ongoing military intervention in Mali would be a tripartite project to be shared among the United Nations, ECOWAS and each of the participating countries. To ease the burden, President Jonathan was in Ethiopia to meet some international donors over the funding.
Speaking on the matter, acting defence minister Dr Olusola Obada, who spoke through her special assistant, Femi Adefila, said “‘the African-led International Support Mission to Mali [AFISMA] would not be funded by Nigeria alone; it is a tripartite funding by the UN, ECOWAS and every country participating. You are aware that the ECOWAS wrote to the UN through the AU for approval before we moved in and so the UN would be involved in the funding.’’
A military source disclosed that the reason why a Nigerian, Major General Shehu Usman Abdulkadir, was appointed the force commander for AFISMA from his seat of chief of army standard and evaluation, Army Headquarters, was because of the confidence Gen Ihejirika has in him, since he had performed creditably in the recent past when he wad assigned similar roles.
Major Gen SU Abdulkadir was born on January 27, 1958, in Kaduna but he hails from Lapai in Niger State. He was commissioned on June 16, 1979 as a regular combatant. He became a colonel in April 2000 and rose to the rank of brigadier general on April 3, 2005 and promoted major general on April 3, 2008.
The French’s 2.000 troops who were ahead of ECOWAS in Mali, have recorded a huge success. They have sent the terrorists away, liberating the two cities they had held captive. Yet, France said Africa would be allowed to take the lead in the war and Nigeria was chosen by the ECOWAS to lead the military assault on the terrorists because of the role she has played in Liberia and other countries of recent.