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Many killed in Mali army camp clash
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Global
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By Agencies
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![Tuareg rebels seek more autonomy from black African-dominated governments [AP]](http://mwcnews.net/images/stories/Africa/A/1/Tuareg-rebels.jpg "Tuareg rebels seek more autonomy from black African-dominated governments [AP]") | | Tuareg rebels seek more autonomy from black African-dominated governments [AP] |
At least 32 people have been killed in clashes between Tuareg separatists and army troops in Mali.
The government announced on Thursday that an army camp in northeastern Mali was attacked, triggering an army retaliation that left 17 Tuareg and 15 soldiers dead in one of the bloodiest clashes to date.
The group is seeking an autonomous state.
A defence ministry statement said an "armed band" assaulted the camp at Abebara, 150km from Kidal overnight on Tuesday and Wednesday, where Tuareg fighters have carried out a series of raids and ambushes.
The group said one of its fighters had died and that they are holding about 60 soldiers.
Six government soldiers and about 20 rebels were wounded in the fighting, according to the ministry.
Crime claim
Mali's government says the Tuareg group is trying to control northern cross-border smuggling routes for arms and drugs.
The sides had agreed a Libyan-brokered ceasefire in April. The calm collapsed when Tuareg fighters attacked a military supply convoy a month later. The Malian army had kept its troops on a war footing in the north, arguing that it did not trust the ceasefire would hold.
Mali's eastern neighbour Niger faces its own Tuareg-led revolt in which more than 70 soldiers have died in under a year, mainly in attacks near its northern uranium-mining zone.Fiercely proud of their independence, the Tuareg nomads staged revolts in Mali in the 1960s and 1990s and in Niger in the 1990s seeking greater autonomy from black African-dominated governments.
Peace agreements after the 1990s rebellions aimed to grant Tuareg communities a greater degree of autonomy while at the same time integrating former fighters into the national army and promoting Tuareg politicians. But grievances have resurfaced.
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