SAHEL-SAHARA SECURITY SUMMIT NOW SCHEDULED FOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAMAKO 000676

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/13/2018
TAGS: ASEC PINS PREL ML
SUBJECT: SAHEL-SAHARA SECURITY SUMMIT NOW SCHEDULED FOR
OCTOBER

REF: BAMAKO 00507

Classified By: Political Officer Aaron Sampson, Embassy Bamako,
for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)

1.(C) Former Minister of Defense Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga
told the Embassy on July 21 that the Head of State summit on
Sahel-Saharan security proposed by President Amadou Toumani
Toure was now scheduled for October. Maiga said summer
travel schedules, Libya's need to prepare for the September 1
ceremony commemorating Qadafi's rise to power, and the month
of Ramadan forced the Malian government to revisit its
timetable for the oft-discussed summit. Maiga indicated that
President Toure had asked him to play a role in drafting an
agenda for the conference. He said Mali hoped to arrange a
meeting of Foreign Ministers one or two days prior to the
actual Head of State summit.

2.(C) Maiga said countries invited to participate in the
summit would include all of the Sahel-Saharan states (Mali,
Niger, Mauritania, Libya, Chad, Senegal and Algeria). Other
states likely to receive invitations include Nigeria, Burkina
Faso, Morocco, Tunisia, Sudan and even possibly Egypt. Maiga
said he intended to raise with President Toure the idea of
inviting non-African nations with specific security concerns,
such as the U.S. and France, to attend as observers. "We
should invite," said Maiga, "everyone who is involved with
security in the region."

3.(C) Maiga is in the process of drafting a framework for
the conference. He said he hoped to share the document with
the U.S, France, Algeria, Morocco and others prior to the
actual summit in order to gauge different actors' responses
to the various proposals. Many of these proposals echo those
he described during his June 3 meeting with Ambassador
McCulley (Ref. A). These include a center for the training
and coordination of a multi-national force based in the
northern outpost of Tessalit, and a regional fund for
Sahel-Saharan development. Maiga said he envisioned a "tour
de table" at the end of the summit where international
partners accorded "observer" status would have a chance to
assume a participant role by pledging support for a
Sahel-Saharan development plan.

4.(C) Comment: We have no indication as of yet whether
Maiga is acting in an official capacity regarding summit
planning or trying to insert himself into what is already a
somewhat confused process. Since he organized the Community
of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD) summit held in Bamako in
2005, Maiga is clearly well versed in the intricacies of
arranging a Sahel, Saharan, Maghreb summit.
LEONARD