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France Writes Off $71 Mln Debt Owed by Mali

© Sputnik / Valeriy Melnikov / Go to the mediabankMali’s capital, Bamako
Mali’s capital, Bamako - Sputnik International
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French Finance Minister Michel Sapin announced on Thursday that Paris had cancelled 43 billion CFA francs ($71 million) worth of debt owed by Mali.

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"France wishes to support Mali more to cope with a debt that is an old debt and sometimes difficult to manage," Sapin said following a meeting with Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, Reuters reported.

Sapin gave no further details of the agreement and it was not immediately clear what portion of Mali's overall debt to France the amount represented.

The crisis in the West African nation flared up in 2012 when thousands of Tuareg refugees from neighboring Libya streamed into the country in the wake of the violent toppling of Muammar Kaddafi.

Occupying the northern parts of the country the Tuages drove the Malian army from the territory and unilaterally proclaimed their independent state of Azawad.

Angered by  the government's handling of the Tuareg separatist uprising, Malian soldiers then staged a coup that eventually allowed al-Qaeda-linked groups to seize the country’s desert north.

A French-led military intervention pushed back the Islamists a year later, but the remnants of the groups continue to carry out regular attacks, mainly in the north.

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