Witnesses in Mali say rebels are making advances at the historic town of Timbuktu. Gunfire have been heard within the area Sunday.
Timbuktu is the last of 3 key northern cities targeted by Tuareg rebels.
The rebels secured town of Gao late Saturday after the Malian army ceased an afternoon-long gun battle with rebels, expressing concern for civilian safety.
Mali's military leader, Captain Amadou Sanogo, released a press release on state TV saying that given the placement of the populations near the battle zone, the forces decided to not fight.
The army pulled troops out of the world, making Gao the second one town Tuareg rebels have taken within the previous couple of days, once they seized the provincial capital, Kidal.
A VOA reporter in Mali said earlier Saturday eyewitnesses first spotted Tuareg rebels in vehicles entering Gao, carrying their Azawad flags. At the moment, heavy gunfire could possibly be heard, and witnesses said army troops launched a response using helicopters. The rebels also fought near the town's military camps.
Tuareg rebels began their insurgency in mid-January, armed with weapons brought into the rustic following the autumn of neighboring Libya. Tuareg separatists has been seeking autonomy for many years. Â
Their most up-to-date advances came during confusion following an army coup in Mali's capital, Bamako. Mid-ranking soldiers overthrew the democratically elected government of President Amadou Toumani Toure on March 22 after accusing leaders of not providing adequate resources to fight the Tuareg rebellion inside the north.
Malian coup leader Sanogo told VOA Friday that Mali needs international support to offer protection to its territorial integrity against the rebels, especially because Mali is a part of the regional cooperative group referred to as the commercial Community of West African States, ECOWAS. Â
Coup leaders are facing growing international pressure to surrender power. ECOWAS has given Sanogo until Monday to revive the country's constitutional order or face harsh economic sanctions.
Three representatives of the army junta met in Ouagadougou Saturday with Burkina Faso's president, Blaise Compaore, to invite for help repelling Tuareg fighters in northern Mali. Their appeal apparently went unanswered. The envoys from Bamako told journalists that the Burkinabe leader's position mirrored that of ECOWAS.
Junta chief of staff Colonel Moussa Coulibaly told reporters Saturday after talks in Ouagadougou that leaders of the junta do agree at the ought to swiftly restore constitutional order. However, details on how they plan on establishing such order remain unclear.
Sanogo said he's now head of state in Mali, with the entire support of Mali's people. The coup that he led came just weeks before elections and the scheduled end of President Toure's term.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.
From WhatNewsToday.net
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