Mali's Tuareg rebels declared independence Friday in the north, splitting the coup-wracked country in two amid warnings the west African nation was on the brink of a humanitarian disaster. The African Union, the European Union, former colonial power France and neighbour Algeria promptly rejected the move amid international alarm over Mali's swift collapse in the two weeks since a coup in the capital Bamako.
A democratic success since its last coup 21 years ago, Mali is now roughly divided into a rebel-controlled north and junta-controlled south, while radical Islamists have exploited the chaos to swoop in and install sharia law in some areas. Humanitarian groups have warned the country is on the brink of catastrophe as hundreds of thousands of people flee the unrest and rebels loot food and medical supplies across an arid region already facing food shortages.
A Tuareg rebel group early Friday declared the independence of their desert homeland they call Azawad, which has seen several rebellions in the northern triangle of the bow-tie shaped nation. "We solemnly proclaim the independence of Azawad as from today," Mossa Ag Attaher, a spokesman for the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), said on France 24 television, confirming a statement on the group's website. He said the MNLA, which captured northern Mali in partnership with Islamist groups over the past two weeks in the wake of the coup in the capital, would respect "the borders with other states" and would halt all military operations.
African Union Commission chief Jean Ping issued a statement declaring the bloc's "total rejection of the statement made by an armed group ... regarding the so-called 'independence' of 'Azawad'." French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said Paris considers the unilateral declaration of independence of 'Azawad' to be "null and void," adding that France was urging the MNLA to reach a negotiated settlement with Bamako. He also condemned the "violence and looting" being carried out by the two Islamist groups, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Ansar Dine, indicating that Paris draws a distinction between those groups and the MNLA.
The European Union also rejected any break-up of Mali and called for talks to resolve the crisis, with foreign poilicy chief Catherine Ashton's spokeswaman saying that any political solution must be found within the existing constitutional framework." Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia also shot down the independence claim, telling France's Le Monde newspaper his country was pushing for dialogue to resolve the crisis with its southern neighbour.
After decades of fighting for independence analysts warn it will not be easy to dislodge the Tuareg from the north now that they have staked their claim. But not all northerners will accept their claim of independence. Witnesses on the ground and observers say the real new masters of Mali's northern desert are not the Tuareg nomads but Ansar Dine led by Iyad Ag Ghaly, himself a Tuareg, which has connections with AQIM.
Ansar Dine, "Defenders of Faith" in Arabic, has ordered women to wear headscarves and threatened to cut off the hands of thieves in the ancient city of Timbuktu, once the jewel in Mali's tourism industry. Algeria's foreign ministry said an unidentified group had attacked its consulate in the town of Gao and kidnapped the consul and six staff members.
West Africa expert Paul Melly of London-based Chatham House said Mali cannot be considered "definitively partitioned." "Much of the population of the north, particularly towns like Gao and Timbuktu and the farming villages of the Niger valley, is made up of sub-Saharan Africa ethnic groups such as the Songhai and the Peul, who consider themselves to be Malian and have no interest in an independent Tuareg state," he said, However, despite the triumph by the MNLA their hold on the region looked tenuous.
Amnesty International warned that north Mali was on the brink of a "major humanitarian disaster" while Oxfam and World Vision said crippling sanctions against the junta could have devastating consequences. More than 200,000 people have fled since the rebellion began in mid-January. Regional army chiefs on Thursday drew up a "mandate" for a 2,000-strong force that could be sent into northern Mali by the Economic Community of West African States.
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