Tuareg rebels in Mali declare cease-fire, as Mali’s neighbors prepare military intervention
By Associated Press, The Washington Post
5 April 2012
Credit: Harouna Traore/Associated Press
Coup leader Capt. Amadou Haya Sanogo speaks to the press at
junta headquarters in Kati, outskirt of Bamako, Mali Tuesday, April
3, 2012. The day after an embargo was placed on Mali, the soldier
who led a recent coup said Tuesday that he agrees with restoring
constitutional order, but first Mali’s ills need to be addressed by
holding a national convention which will decide on the best way
forward. With Capt. Sanogo refusing to step down, surrounding
nations have imposed severe financial sanctions on Mali.
BAMAKO, Mali — The rebel group that recently seized control of Mali’s remote north in a maneuver
that effectively partitioned the country in two announced a cease-fire Thursday, saying they had
reached their military goal.
Moussa Ag Assarid, a spokesman for the National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad, said
the group was declaring the cease-fire to allow humanitarian aid to resume in the north, where shops
were looted.
In Ivory Coast, the military chiefs of the nations bordering Mali met Thursday to hash out their plan for
a military intervention. Deputy Ivorian Defense Minister Paul Koffi Koffi said military action is being
considered both to reverse the coup that deposed Mali’s president last month, as well as to preserve
Mali’s territorial integrity after the rebel advance in the north.
He instructed the army chiefs of the 15 nations in West Africa to draft a detailed plan, including how
many troops each intends to send, how quickly they could ready them and what logistical means they
plan to contribute.
In Paris, Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said France is ready to help African forces on a logistical level.
The chief of staff of the French army, Adm. Edouard Guillaud, traveled Thursday to Burkina Faso to
discuss details with the president.
The rebels launched their insurgency in January, saying they wanted to establish an independent
Tuareg homeland in the north, known as the Azawad. They only succeeded in taking small towns until
March 21, when disgruntled soldiers stormed the presidential palace in the distant capital of Bamako,
overthrowing the democratically elected president.
In the confusion that followed the coup, the rebels launched a new offensive and succeeded in taking
the capitals of the three main northern provinces, including Kidal, which fell last Friday, Gao on
Saturday and Timbuktu on Sunday.
“The NMLA has reached the end of its military operations for the liberation of the territory of the
Azawad,” said Assarid, speaking by telephone from Paris.
“Since the day before yesterday when our units reached Douentza which we consider to be the
frontier of the Azawad,” he said, referring to a town some 600 kilometers (375 miles) from Bamako,
“the military offensive is declared over.”
Assarid’s group is the largest rebel group involved in the offensive, but it is not the only one, and in the
three main towns in the north, local officials say they cannot be sure which of the rebel armies has the
upper hand. Western observers have expressed concern over the presence of an Islamist faction
called Ansar Dine, which planted its ominous black flag in all three of the provincial capitals. This
week, the group announced it was imposing Sharia law in the ancient city of Timbuktu.
The mayor of Timbuktu said nearly all of the estimated 300 Christians based in the city fled after Ansar
Dine’s spiritual chief Iyad Ag Ghali gave an interview on local radio outlining the tenets of Sharia law:
Women are to be covered at all times, thieves will have their hands cut off and adulterers will be
stoned.
“The problem for us is that we don’t know who is the master of our town,” said the mayor, Ousmane
Halle, who explained that the Islamist faction had taken over the city’s military camp, while the secular
rebels were stationed at the airport.
“What I deplore is the departure of the Christian community,” he said. The city has been honored as a
UNESCO World Heritage site for its collection of ancient Islamic manuscripts, propagating a moderate
interpretation of the religion.
“Many said to me that they are obliged to leave,” he said. “And they are right. I cannot guarantee their
safety. And these are people that have lived side by side with us for centuries.”
In a statement, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday strongly condemned the
forcible seizure of power in Mali.
“Mali has never experienced such a situation,” Mali’s U.N. Ambassador Omar Daou told the Security
Council on Wednesday. “Our people are divided. Our country is threatened with partition.”
Once a diplomat assigned to Mali’s consulate in Saudi Arabia, the Islamist leader Ag Ghali used to be
in regular contact with the United States Embassy in Bamako, according to diplomatic cables
published by WikiLeaks. For years, he was a Tuareg rebel leader and acted as a go-between when
foreigners were kidnapped by a branch of al-Qaida based in the north of Mali. Although he is believed
to be in touch with al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, there is no evidence that he himself has
taken part in terrorist activities.
The imposition of Sharia has worried analysts and country watchers. Besides Timbuktu, the Ansar
Dine faction is accused of destroying bars in Gao and Kidal, and of forcing shopkeepers there to take
down pictures of unveiled women.
On Thursday, gunmen seized seven workers from Algeria’s consulate in Gao. Mourad Medelci told the
state news agency Thursday the group was forced to leave the consulate and taken to an unknown
location.
He added that the government was mobilized to ensure their release as soon as possible.
Algeria has aggressively fought Islamic extremists on its own soil, including AQIM, which has its roots
in Algeria.
In Abidjan, where the military chiefs were meeting, the head of Ivory Coast’s army said that the
possible link between the rebels and terrorism is reason enough for a possible military intervention.
“The advance of the National Liberation Movement of Azawad, associated with terrorist groups like
AQIM and Ansar Dine and others, gives sufficient reason to the entire region to be put on notice,” said
Gen. Soumaila Bakayoko.
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Associated Press writers Baba Ahmed in Bamako, Mali; Laura Burke in Abidjan, Ivory Coast and
Karim Kebir in Algiers, Algeria contributed to this report.
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Copyright 2012 The Washington Post