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Hollande: France offers 360 mln euros to Mali

Xinhua, October 22, 2015 Adjust font size:

France would allocate 360 million euros (about 407 million U.S. dollars) of loans and grants to Mali by 2017 to help its former African colony to bolster economy and uproot terrorist cells, President Francois Hollande announced Wednesday.

At a joint press meeting with his Malian counterpart Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, Hollande said 80 million euros would be devoted to towns in northern Mali which al Qaeda-linked militants seized in 2012 before being ousted by French forces a year after.

"This means we are aware of what to do to support economic development, when it is particularly dynamic," the French leader said.

France has already offered 300 million euros to Malian authorities to back the country's growth recovery and infrastructure, Hollande added.

In 2013, France launched a UN-backed military operation at the request of the Malian authorities, to help dispel insurgents mainly from the northern region. (1 euro = 1.13 U.S. dollar) Endit