The talks are aimed at restoring a peace agreement signed in June that was intended to allow the Malian army to focus on stamping out Islamist groups, some of them linked to al Qaeda.
A pro-government militia in Mali killed 20 separatists in three days of fighting that undermines efforts to pacify the northern region of the country, the secretary general of the pro-government Gatia militia, Fahad Ag Almahamoud, said on Monday.
Neighbouring Niger is due to hold peace talks on Wednesday between the pro-government Platform group, which includes Gatia, and the Tuareg-dominated Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA). The talks are aimed at restoring a peace agreement signed in June that was intended to allow the Malian army to focus on stamping out Islamist groups, some of them linked to al Qaeda.
"The fighting is over for now on all three fronts. CMA lost everywhere and sustained 20 dead. There was none on our side. All the deaths were for nothing," Almahamoud told Reuters. Attempts to contact the CMA over the death toll were unsuccessful.
Fighting took place near the towns of Anefis and Amassine in the Kidal region from around 6 a.m. and at Tourek Oued, according to Mali's UN peacekeeping mission, MINUSMA, and Platform. Both sides said the separatist rebels attacked Platform positions.
Ag Almahamoud said Platform seized Anefis just before midday, and a CMA fighter said the rebels had lost the town. MINUSMA threatened to impose sanctions against those responsible for the recent violence.
"The growing number of (ceasefire) violations deeply worries the international community ... and risks hampering advances towards a stable and durable peace," it said in a statement. Heavily armed CMA fighters aboard pick-up trucks raced out the town of Kidal, the separatists' main stronghold, in the direction of the fighting early on Monday and French fighter jets flew over the town, a Reuters witness said.
The rebels had launched Monday's attacks, CMA spokesman Almou Ag Mohamed said earlier, but he blamed MINUSMA for failing to prevent Platform fighters making incursions into CMA-held areas.
"I don't see any point to talks in Niger or anywhere else before we are able to calm the situation on the ground."
Mali is seeking to break a decades-long cycle of Tuareg uprisings. In 2012, rebels formed an alliance with Islamist militants and seized the north, prompting a French-led intervention that scattered the Islamists but failed to eradicate them. Militant violence is again rising and expanding further south, putting pressure on the government to defuse tension with the Tuaregs.
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