Mali seeks foreign help
2007-09-02 17:56
Bamako - Mali has appealed for international help to counter raids by Tuareg rebels, who, it says, are trafficking drugs and arms.
Foreign Minister Moctar Ouane and other ministers told
foreign ambassadors in a briefing that recent attacks led by Malian Tuareg insurgent leader Ibrahima Bahanga also included fighters from neighbouring Niger.
Nomadic light-skinned Tuaregs in northern Niger and Mali,
who staged an uprising in the former French colonies in the
1990s, have long complained of being neglected and marginalised
by black-dominated governments ruling far away in the south.
Ouane called the attacks "acts of terrorism" carried out by drug-traffickers and arms smugglers and said all of the activities posed a threat to the security of whole region.
Civilians were killed by landmines
"The government of Mali knows that it can count on the
political, diplomatic and material support of the countries and
organisations that you represent," he told the ambassadors.
Bahanga's men have ambushed three military convoys in the desolate mountain region of Tin-Zaouatene
bordering Algeria and Niger recently, taking several dozen soldiers prisoner and seizing vehicles and ammunition.
At least 13 people, most of them civilians, were killed
in recent days by landmines which the government says were laid
by the rebels to cover their withdrawal after the attacks.
In Niger, the Tuareg-led Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ)
rebel group has killed more than 45 soldiers during a
seven-month uprising in the uranium-rich north, prompting the
government to declare a state of alert in the Agadez region.
The MNJ wants northern Tuaregs to have a greater share of
the wealth generated by their region.
Malian Defence Minister Mamadou Clazie Cissouma said there
were links between the attacks in both countries.