News / North Africa

Clashes among militant factions leave 10 dead in northern Mali

Saturday, 26 December 2015 11:03 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 26 December 2015 11:03 PM ]

Malian soldiers patrol in Kidal, northern Mali. (AFP)

At least ten members of the Tuareg group have been killed in twin attacks in northern Mali blamed on several terror groups.

The first attack occurred on Thursday with an assault on a checkpoint, run by fighters from the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), in the town of Talahandak, located in the Kidal region near the Algerian border, and killed six Tuareg fighters, Reuters reported on Saturday.

The MNLA is a political and military organization mostly made up of Tuareg rebels based in Azaward.

A second assault claimed four more lives on Friday with gunmen ambushing a Tuareg convoy of reinforcement on its way to the border, said an official with the Tuareq umbrella group Coordination of Movements of Azawad (CMA).

On June 20, CMA signed a landmark deal, the Algiers Accord, with the government to end years of unrest in the country.

The UN-sponsored peace deal is aimed at ending hostilities in Mali’s vast northern desert, where Tuareg rebels have launched several uprisings since the 1960s.

The official blamed the attacks on terrorists from al-Qaeda-linked militant groups such as the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJWA), Ansar Dine and the Macina Liberation Front.

These groups carried out the attacks, which “are opposed to the peace deal. AQIM, MUJWA and Ansar Dine have even met to put in place a coalition,” he further said.

Mali has been witnessing violence linked to militant activity in its northern regions since 2012. The area remains vulnerable to attacks despite a military operation led by France in 2013, which came after the UN Security Council passed a resolution on the deployment of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA).

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