A leader of a former Tuareg rebel group who was killed in a blast in northern Mali this weekend was in fact "assassinated", an umbrella ex-rebel group said Sunday. Cheikh Ag Aoussa, the military leader of a former rebel group, was leaving a meeting Saturday at the office of the UN MINUSCA mission in Kidal when his car exploded.
An African military source who is part of the UN deployment said his car struck a mine and that he died on the spot. A local official confirmed he was killed by a mine.
"All the findings have ruled out (the possibility) that the car passed over the mine. The car was booby-trapped and therefore it is a targeted assassination," said the former rebel Co-ordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) of which Aoussa was a member. "Every indication is that the explosive device was placed on the deceased during the meeting. "As usual, the vehicles of the CMA representatives were parked inside the MINUSMA camp for the duration of the meeting."
The CMA called on the UN force and French forces in the country to cooperate with it to open an investigation into the circumstances of the "odious and undoubtedly pre-meditated assassination," according to a statement issued Sunday.
MINUSMA spokeswoman Radhia Achouri said that Aoussa would attend meetings along with other CMA figures at the UN base "every 15 days" to discuss security in the region. According to a CMA document seen by AFP, Aoussa was leaving the UN compound with four other CMA leaders following evening prayers when the blast occurred a few hundred metres (yards) from the base.