MOSCOW, February 3 (RIA Novosti) - Three weeks after launching a campaign against Islamist rebels who had seized Mali’s north, France’s President Francois Hollande has vowed to provide assistance in the country's restoration, media reported.
Hollande said in the capital Bamako that more aid would be given to the former French colony, the BBC reported on Saturday. He also pledged to restore cultural sites damaged by the rebels.
The French president said French troops would stay in Mali "as long as necessary," and that his country would help Mali re-establish control in its north.
Hollande spoke alongside Dioncounda Traore, Mali's interim leader.
Some 3,500 French troops are in Mali now, according to the BBC.
