Yesterday, Foreign Secretary William Hague said "there is no all-military solution to the problem" in Mali.

He claims the answer to how to improve the situation in Mali could possibly be found by looking at the role Britain and the international community had played over the past year in Somalia.

Speaking to the Today programme's Evan Davis, he said it was important to address the situation in Mali, to prevent it from becoming a failed state, as Somalia was for more than 20 years.

He said that Somalia was "a good model here to think about, although we mustn't generalise too much from one country to another... where we have managed... to bring about, with the strong Somali support, a legitimate government in Somalia."

He highlighted that now Somalia "enjoys a greater degree of support among the local people, [and has] strong African forces engaged in fighting terrorist organisations, funded by the European Union."

"It's the African forces that do the actual fighting and manoeuvring there [with] strong humanitarian and diplomatic support from the rest of the world," he added.

Get in touch with Today via email , Twitter or Facebook or text us on 84844.