Fighting reported in Mali

2008-03-26 20:23

Bamako - Fighting broke out early on Wednesday around a military camp in Mali's northern desert, residents said.

Gunfire started around 05:00 local time and appeared to come from the direction of a military base outside the town of Aguelhok, said Jaouja Toure, a doctor in the town.

A government official in the regional capital, Kidal, confirmed the fighting, but did not provide details. He spoke anonymously because he was not an authorised spokesperson.

A military spokesperson in the capital, Bamako, declined to comment until he had more information.

Aguelhok is about 150km south of the Algerian border, in a region that has been plagued by rebel attacks and banditry for more than a year.

In the most recent incident, ethnic Tuareg rebels took about 30 troops hostage last week.

Increase government opportunities

The attack occurred in the same lawless cross-border region where reports have suggested two Austrian tourists are being held since being kidnapped by Islamic militants last month while on vacation in Tunisia.

Al-Qaeda in Islamic North Africa has said the pair will be freed only if several of its members are released from Algerian and Tunisian prisons by April 6.

Officials have not confirmed that the two are in Mali, though an Austrian envoy has been in the country for some time.

Mali had signed a peace deal with the Tuaregs last year to end an insurgency that re-ignited in 2006 after years of peace following a 1990s rebellion.

The latest deal promised renewed efforts to increase development in the impoverished north and increase government opportunities for members of the ethnic group.

But one faction refused to sign the deal, saying it did not do enough to help the Tuareg minority, whose nomadic culture sets them apart from Mali's southern ethnic groups.

This band of men since has been blamed for attacks on military installations and for kidnapping soldiers and government security officers.

- AP