BBC News with Sue Montgomery
The European naval force operating off the Horn of Africa is being given a new attack policy allowing it to fight Somali pirates on land as well as at sea. The European Union will permit its warships to attack pirate boats and
fuel dumps
on Somali beaches. Frank Gardner reports.
Boats, ladders, fuel dumps and four-by-four vehicles belonging to Somali pirates will all be considered legitimate targets on land under the EU's new dramatically scaled-up scope of operations. European Union officials have agreed to extend their counter-piracy mission of Somalia to at least the end of 2014. They've also agreed in principle to take the fight with maritime piracy to bases along the coast for the first time although naval officers denied this would mean putting troops
on the ground
.
The leader of the
coup
in Mali says he doesn't intend to
cling to
power. Captain Amadou Sanogo said he would stand down after making sure the army was able to secure the country. Here's Thomas Fessy.
Captain Amadou Sanogo told the BBC that he had no intention to hold on to power and promised a presidential election when security is fully re-established in Mali. He explained that troops were poorly equipped and trained to face the Tuareg-led rebellion in the north. Captain Sanogo also
vowed
to transfer former officials who are now under arrest to the judicial system. Two days after the coup began, the