Rebels free 10 more hostages
2007-12-30 22:44
Algiers - Tuareg rebels released 10 Malian army soldiers on Sunday after holding them hostage for months deep in the Sahara, the Algerian official news agency APS said.
"The 10 Malian military men had been handed over to the head of the Algerian Tin-Zaouatene district Krid Mahfoud, who represented the Algerian mediation," it added, quoting one of its reporters who witnessed the move.
The freed men would be transferred to Malian government representative Colonel Eloi Togo, APS said.
On Saturday, Tuareg rebels released 16 Malian soldiers but kept 19 of their comrade prisoner, a government representative in the country's remote north had said.
As a result, the rebels were still holding nine Malian soldiers hostage after Sunday's release. Tuareg fighters led by insurgent chief Ibrahima Bahanga took dozens of government soldiers hostage in a violent campaign that began in August and saw some of its heaviest fighting around the remote garrison at Tin-Zaouatene.
The uprising added to insecurity in the Sahara after Tuareg-led rebels in neighbouring Niger launched a bloody campaign against their own country's government in February.
The violence was reminiscent of fierce 1990s rebellions by Tuaregs and other light-skinned nomadic tribes, which roamed the northern stretches of Mali and Niger, some of whom resent the authority of their southern-based, black African-led governments.