adminThe National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) said they were no longer seeking to expand their area of control, having secured the borders of what the group considers to be a Tuareg homeland. “Our objective it not to go further than the Azawad borders. We don’t want to create problems for the government of Mali, and even less create problems in the sub-region,” said Hama Ag Mahmoud, of the MNLA’s political wing.
“We don’t want to give anyone the impression that we’re gung-ho for the war, so from the moment we have liberated our territories, our objective is achieved, we stop there.”
He said that while his group had not yet been contacted regarding talks, they were open to them.
“We are open to all attempts . . . (to) all means of negotiations through Ecowas (Economic Community of West African States), through another organ or through big powers, we are effectively open, but for now we haven’t received any attempt of negotiation,” he said.
Earlier, the rebels overran Timbuktu, a long-time target of their movement.
“(Tuareg rebels) have arrived in the town. They are planting their flag,” El Hadj Baba Haidara, a member of parliament for Timbuktu, told Reuters on Sunday.
A resident told Reuters that the rebels had hoisted the Tuareg flag at the governor’s office, the mayor’s office and the main military camp.
The capture of Timbuktu came hours after the rebels took the garrison town of Gao, following a withdrawal by Malian army forces.
Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from, Bamako, said that by capturing Timbuktu, the rebels had “managed to do what had eluded them for decades”.
He said that when mutinous soldiers overthrew the government, they said it was with the intention of establishing a genuine democracy in Mali.
“However, what they failed to take into account was that the army was sort of disintegrating and that the rebellion was going to take advantage of that situation to claim more than one third of the country,” he added. — Al Jazeera.
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