Tuareg leaders to ease tensions in Mali
AFP Published:Sep 17, 2007
BAMAKO – Three Tuareg leaders in northeastern Mali are slated to meet rebels in a desert rendezvous in a bid to ease tensions and reduce violence after attacks on government troops, an official said.
« Three elected officials and notables from the Kidal region left Kidal yesterday to meet (rebel chief) Ibrahim Ag Bahanga in the desert to ask him to calm the situation and to respect the current ceasefire, » the official said, requesting anonymity.
Deputy Al Ghabas Ag Intalla, the son of the chief of a Tuareg tribe, Aladi Ag Alla, former head of a 1960s Tuareg rebel group and Bayene Ag Ahawali, former mayor of Kidal and current secretary for communication for an ex-rebel group are on their way to the meeting, added the source.
He said the mission was « a personal initiative by the natives of the region to contribute to preserving the peace. »
Military and government officials accuse Ag Bahanga and his renegade Tuareg rebels of breaking an August 31 truce when they attacked Tinzaouatene, a desert town near the northern border with Algeria, on Friday.
They suspect Ag Bahanga, who belongs to Mali’s main Tuareg political movement, of seeking control of the the region’s lucrative illegal drug trade.
In Friday’s attack, Ag Bahanga « broke the ceasefire which he had been asked to respect by the intermediary of Iyad Ag Ghaly, » the head of the movement of the former Tuareg rebellion who had « undertaken appeasement measures in his place, » the ministry of defence said in a statement.
The Malian government sent reinforcements to the area but no new clashes took place on Saturday, residents said.
Low-level violence has simmered for weeks in the region, where armed Tuaregs – an indigenous, nomadic Berber people – have long pressed the government of the deeply poor Sahel nation for aid.
The Tuareg insurgents fired at and slightly damaged a US military aircraft which was dropping provisions to Malian troops in the area on Wednesday.
The plane had been in Mali for a counterterrorism exercise which finished last week, and was deployed after Mali requested help with the delivery of supplies to its troops, US officials said.
In some cases the Malian rebels appear to be allied to Tuareg tribes in neighbouring Niger, where an insurgency erupted in February over demands for a share in revenue from the country’s uranium mining.
Tuaregs in Algeria have also been active and 16 civilians died in the border area when their trucks hit mines on August 30 and 31.
