adminA convoy of about 30 armoured vehicles carrying some 200 French and Malian soldiers moved into the town yesterday at about 9 GMT, without meeting resistance.
Diabaly, 350 km north of the capital Bamako, had harboured the main cluster of rebels south of the front-line towns of Mopti and Sevare until French airstrikes forced them to flee or attempt to blend in with locals, residents said.
A colonel in the Malian army had said earlier that a “fringe of the Diabaly population adheres to the jihadists’ theories and we must be very careful in the coming hours”.
French television footage from Diabaly has shown charred pick-up trucks abandoned by al Qaeda-linked rebels amid mud brick homes.
One resident said the rebels had fled the town which was abandoned by many of its residents, and those remaining lacked food and other essentials.
As French troops began a deployment towards the Islamist-held north, moving into the strategic central towns of Niono and Sevare on Sunday, Paris said the aim of the 11-day old military offensive was total victory over the Islamists.
“The goal is the total reconquest of Mali,” French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in televised remarks. “We will not leave any pockets” of resistance.
France began its military offensive in Mali on 11 January, and has said that African nations must take the lead though it could be some weeks before they are ready to do so.
Rebels in Mali were reported Sunday to be abandoning some of their positions and converging on the mountainous region of Kidal, their northernmost bastion, 1500km from Bamako and near the border with Algeria.
Kidal was the first town seized by an amalgam of militants, some linked to al-Qaeda, and Tuareg separatist groups in March last year. The two sides then had a falling out and the Islamist groups have since gained the upper hand in the desert north.
Meanwhile the planned deployment of nearly 6 000 African soldiers continued slowly into Bamako, hampered by cash and logistical constraints. Only 150 African troops had arrived by Sunday.
Senegal, Benin and six other West African nations are contributing to the African mission which is expected to take over the baton from France, and Chad has also pledged 2 000 soldiers.
The head of the Commission of regional West African bloc Ecowas, Desire Kadre Ouedraogo, estimated the cost of an African offensive against the armed Islamist groups at about $500 million.
The European Union has pledged 50 million euros to the International Support Mission for Mali. — Al Jazeera
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter