The United States, Africa and Europe dismissed the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad's (MNLA) declaration of independence.
Mali's Tuareg rebels declared independence today in the north, a move rejected by the international community and the Islamist insurgents they fought beside, as fears grew of a humanitarian crisis.
The United States, Africa and Europe dismissed the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad's (MNLA) declaration of independence.
The declaration, long a goal of Tuareg rebels, is a bid to formalise the situation on the ground, where the country had been split in two by their uprising.
A democratic success since its last coup 21 years ago, Mali is now roughly divided into a Tuareg rebel-controlled north and junta-controlled south.
Complicating the picture, a radical Islamist group, Ansar Dine, has exploited the chaos to swoop in and install sharia law in parts of the north.
But while for a while the Islamists fought in concert with the MNLA, they have given short shrift to their independence plans. "Our war is a holy war," Ansar Dine military chief Omar Hamaha said.
"We are against rebellions. We are against independence. We are against revolutions not in the name of Islam."
Hamaha was speaking in a video obtained by AFP and France 2 television, filmed on Tuesday and Wednesday after the Islamists' takeover of the fabled city of Timbuktu.
While the Islamists appeared to have the upper hand, the separatist MNLA this morning declared the independence of their desert homeland, which they call Azawad, and where several rebellions have played out in past decades.
This latest one was fuelled by a flood of weapons -- and returning Tuareg fighters -- from Libya following Muammar Gaddafi's downfall.
"We solemnly proclaim the independence of Azawad as from today," Mossa Ag Attaher, a Paris-based MNLA spokesman said on France 24 television, confirming a statement on the group's website.
He told AFP the group was ready to help fight the "terrorism" of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. But the international community swiftly rejected their proclamation.
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