| Submit your comments on this article |
| Africa North |
| Armed men seize north Mali army camps |
| 2006-05-23 |
| BAMAKO - Armed men believed to be Tuareg rebels took over two army camps in remote northern Mali early on Tuesday, military sources said. The sources, who asked not to be identified, said the camps were attacked at Kidal in the desert zone where Tuareg warriors staged a revolt in the early 1990s. A subsequent peace deal ended the rebellion but sporadic unrest has continued. There was no immediate information on casualties. “We can still hear gunfire,” Jean Pierre Tita, the correspondent of the Malian state news agency in Kidal, more than 1,000 km (600 miles) north east of Bamako, told Reuters. After the peace deal that ended the Tuareg rebellion, the desert warriors were integrated into the Malian national army. But in February this year, a senior officer and former Tuareg rebel, Lt.-Col. Hassan Fagaga deserted his post with a group of men, raising fears of a possible armed challenge to the central government. Fearing the infiltration of Islamic militants from Algeria in the north, the United States has been helping to train the Malian army in anti-terrorism tactics. |
| Posted by:Steve |