Mali's junta leader appealed on Friday for outside help to secure the West African country after separatist Tuareg rebels took the strategic northern town of Kidal. Arms spilling out of Libya from last year's conflict have bolstered a northern rebellion in Mali. President Amadou Toumani Toure was facing rising unpopularity over his failure to halt the rebellion before he was toppled in last week's coup.
But the putsch has if anything emboldened the rebels, while the coup leaders have been internationally condemned - including by neighbours which on Thursday gave them 72 hours to surrender power or see Mali's borders and bank funding shut off. "Our army needs the help of Mali's friends to save the civilian population and Mali's territorial integrity," coup leader Captain Amadou Sanogo told reporters at the barracks outside the capital Bamako serving as the country's presidency.
The rebels, who began fighting for an independent north in January, have seized on the confusion to prepare offensives on the three regional centres in Mali's remote north. Among their number are Ansar Edine, an Islamist group with loose personal ties to local al Qaeda militants and which promotes sharia law.
Claiming its most significant victory so far, the rebel MNLA group said on its website it had taken Kidal, a town of 25,000, after 48 hours of fighting. "The MNLA will continue its advance on the two other regional capitals of Azawad," it said of the northern desert territory it sees as its rightful homeland. A junta statement confirmed the fall of Kidal.
"To preserve the life of the people of Kidal, the military command decided not to prolong the battle," it said, adding that the rebels included MNLA, Ansar Edine and local al Qaeda men. A military source in Kidal told Reuters soldiers abandoned positions in one camp so as to co-ordinate a counter-offensive. "The rebels are going around town, telling people to go about their business as usual. They are all armed, in four-wheel drive vehicles. Women uttered cries of joy to greet them at the airport," said Kidal resident Moussa Maiga by phone.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.