02/27/2013 12:10 GMT
VIENNA, Feb 27, 2013 (AFP) - Austria's parliament gave the green light on Wednesday for sending a small number of troops to conflict-torn Mali to provide medical assistance and help with possible evacuations.
The medical personnel will join a German contingent travelling to Mali in mid-March to assist a nine-person EU Training Mission (EUTM), the defence ministry said in a statement following the parliamentary vote.
Austria said it might send about 20 troops and a C-130 Hercules plane to help with air cargo and evacuations.
None of the troops from the small neutral country will be involved in combat, the defence ministry noted.
The EUTM has a 15-month mandate to shape up the ramshackle Malian army in its effort to fight Islamist rebels who last year seized control of the country's vast arid north.
The idea of an EU training mission was already approved in December but its deployment was accelerated after France's surprise intervention in its former colony on January 11 to halt the insurgents' march on the capital.
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