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Mali rebel splinter group says it is ready for talks Mali rebel splinter group says it is ready for talks
(about 1 hour later)
One wing of Mali's Ansar Dine rebel group has split off to create its own movement, saying that it wants to negotiate a solution to the crisis in Mali in a declaration that indicates at least some of the members of the al-Qaida-linked group are searching for an exit in the wake of French air strikes. Ansar Dine, the Tuareg-dominated Malian Islamist group under pressure from the escalating French-led military assault in the country, has split in two, according to reports.
Former Ansar Dine leader Alghabass Ag Intalla said in a statement, published on Thursday by French radio RFI, that the group will be called the Islamic Movement for the Azawad, a Tuareg term for northern Mali. Intalla said the group is looking for a "negotiated solution", and he added that his men were willing to fight their former comrades-in-arms in Ansar Dine. Former fighters, once loyal to its leader Iyad ag Ghali, have said they are prepared both to negotiate and also fight their one-time comrades.
An elected official from Kidal, who insisted on anonymity for fear of reprisals, told the Associated Press on Thursday that the split was a long time coming and reflects the fact that Ansar Dine, which took over the northern city of Kidal, succeeded in enlisting large numbers of fighters and co-opting local authorities for economic and political reasons rather than ideological ones. Among them, he said, is Intalla, who is the heir to the traditional ruler of Kidal, and who is not believed to be a radical Muslim. The fracturing of Ansar Dine – if confirmed – would be a significant blow to the confederation of Islamist groups who seized Mali's north last year.
"They never believed in this ideology. Now they are running for the exits," said the official, who spoke by telephone. According to some reports former members of the Tuareg separatist MNLA had also joined the new group named the Islamic Movement for Azawad which is being led by Algabass Ag Intallah.
The split is indicative of possible disarray within the ranks of the Islamist groups that seized control of northern Mali more than nine months ago. The French president, François Hollande, authorised a military intervention two weeks ago and fighter jets have pounded rebel training camps, arms depots and bases. Since then, the Islamists appear to have fled from the cities, although they still remain firmly in control of much of northern Mali. The group insisted on Wednesday that it was composed entirely of Malians and was seeking an "inclusive political" dialogue to bring its conflict with Bamoko to an end. It added that it rejected terrorism and extremism.
The fighters of Ansar Dine have long been seen by those who have been seeking a negotiated end to the Malian crisis as most vulnerable to being split away from their allies in al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and the the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO).
Ag Intallah is an important tribal leader from one of the Tuareg noble clans whose power base is around Kidal about 1,500km north of the capital Bamoko.
He had been sent to represent Ansar Dine in negotiations in Burkina Faso along where, it appears, he was persuaded to change sides.
According to France's RFI he has been joined in the dissident group by Ansar Dine's former spokesman Mohamed Ag Arib.
According to RFI the new group is seeking a cessation of hostilities in the region around Kidal and Menaka, formerly controlled by Ansar Dine.
Other areas, including the cities of Gao and Timbukto, are held by by AQIM and MUJAO.
"We want to wage our war and not that of AQIM," said Ag Intallah, referring to al-Qaida's north African wing which has been at the heart of the takeover of the vast desert north by Malian and foreign Islamist fighters.
"There has to be a ceasefire so there can be talks," he said, speaking from the town of Kidal, a Tuareg stronghold in north-east Mali seized by Ansar Dine last year. "The aim is to speak about the situation in the north."
He said the new group, which would be based in Kidal, had been in touch with mediators in Burkina Faso and Algerian authorities. He said rebel demands would be for a broad autonomy rather than independence for the north.
Ansar Dine had formed a loose alliance with AQIM and MUJWA, to impose sharia law in what comprises a desert and mountain area the size of Texas.
It was not immediately possible to confirm how many fighters would leave the ranks of Ansar Dine to join the new group.
International negotiators have long sought to prize apart the Islamist alliance by offering talks to Ansar Dine and Tuareg separatists, on the condition that they broke with AQIM. Ag Intallah was a senior Ansar Dine negotiator in talks last year.
But preliminary negotiations broke down last month after Ansar Dine called off a ceasefire, amid reports of splits between moderates seeking a political solution and radicals with deep links to al-Qaida.
Ag Intallah would not give a figure for his supporters, as he said a list was still being drawn up, but he said most Malians in the ranks of Ansar Dine had joined his faction.
Estimates for the total number of Islamist fighters in Mali vary but do not exceed roughly 3,000.
Ag Intallah said some members of the Tuareg separatist MNLA movement, which has fought AQIM in the north, had also joined his group.
A spokesman for the MNLA was not immediately available for comment.
The emergence of a new "moderate wing" of Ansar Dine has come as it was reported that a column of Chadian soldiers had been despatched towards Gao, and as the joint French and West African effort to reclaim the countries north was gaining pace.