Mali coup: al-Qaeda linked rebels declare independence of territory larger than France

Under the terms of the deal, officers involved in the coup would be offered
amnesty and sanctions on Mali would be lifted immediately.

As the chaos in Mali continued Britain ordered the immediate closure of its
embassy in the capital, Bamako, and began evacuating staff from the country
due to what a spokesman called the “unstable and unpredictable situation”.

France, Mali’s former colonial ruler and a key power in the region, called the
Tuareg rebels’ “unilateral” independence declaration “null
and void”. “France and the international community is
attached to, and defends, the unity and territorial integrity of Mali,”
said Bernard Valero, the foreign ministry spokesman in Paris.

The African Union and Algeria, Mali’s northern neighbour, were both quick to
condemn the announcement. Ecowas, the West African regional body, has been
considering sending troops into Mali to forestall further rebel advances.

The rebel army is made up largely of Tuaregs, Saharan tribespeople who have
been battling for independence from southern Mali since the nation’s
independence from France in 1960.

Malian mercenaries returning from Libya after the death of Col Gaddafi
strengthened the MNLA’s leadership, swelled its infantry ranks and boosted
its arsenal.

The rebels lightning advance across Mali’s north was launched as
middle-ranking officers from the national army staged a coup in Bamako on
March 22, creating chaos in the capital, far to the south.

But there were signs last night that even among the rebels, there was
disagreement.

An Islamist force with links to al-Qaeda that has been fighting alongside the
MNLA also rejected independence for Mali’s north and said instead that it
wanted only to enforce strict Islamic law “from sunrise to sunset”
in its newly-occupied territory.

“We are against rebellions. We are against independence,” Omar
Hamaha, Ansar Dine’s military leader, said in a video obtained by the French
news agency, AFP.

“Our war is a holy war. It’s a legal war in the name of Islam. We are
against revolutions not in the name of Islam. Independence is Islam. That’s
the real independence. It’s to implement sharia, from sunrise to sunset.”
Western diplomats fear that the Islamists have in fact used the MNLA’s
advance as a cover to take more land than they would otherwise have been
able to occupy.

There are concerns that the area could become a training ground for al-Qaeda
in the Islamic Maghreb, which could then launch attacks against
Western-allied nations to the south.

Timbuktu, Mali’s ancient desert capital, fell to the rebels last week and by
Thursday the Islamists’ black flag was flying over major buildings. Already,
one man had his hand amputated in public for alleged theft and seven
Algerian diplomats have been kidnapped.

Few civilians appeared to support either the rebels’ declaration of
independence, or the reach of the new regime.

“This is really a bad joke,” Toure Alassane, a 42-year-old native of
Timbuktu told Reuters at a gathering of about 200 northerners protesting
against the move in Bamako.

“It will never work. You don’t just declare independence when people
don’t have food to eat and nothing is functioning in the north,” he
said.

Widespread food shortages caused by last year’s rain failure have been
aggravated by the insecurity.

In the northern town of Kidal, one resident said control was not in the hands
of the MNLA, as the group had claimed, but was being ruled by Ansar Dine.

“Nothing goes without their say,” the resident said.

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