Mali: Tuareg separatists of Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) and Gatia pro-government militia clashed in Anefi town
Tuareg separatists seized a town in Mali’s desert north from a pro-government ethnic Tuareg militia after days of fighting, the separatists and a local legislator close to the government side said.
Fighting between rival Tuareg factions has intensified and threatens to derail a 2015 peace deal meant to end years of conflict and instability in the landlocked West African nation.
The rebel Co-ordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) and the pro-government Gatia are locked in a power struggle in northern Mali, despite the return of state authority to its cities in March for the first time since a 2012 Tuareg uprising.
“Anefis has been under control of the CMA since yesterday. Preparations are being made to retake it,” Ahamoudane Ag Ikmasse, a Gatia-allied local lawmaker in the nearby major city of Kidal told Reuters.
CMA spokesman Redouane Ag Mohamed Ali confirmed Anefis, a Sahara desert town, had been taken.