Multiplicity of armed groups in Mali exacerbates the situation

Media confirmed on Saturday that the National Front for the Liberation of Azawad is a new armed group formed by Arabs in the north-western Mali, entered Friday the city of Timbuktu and tightened control on its entrances.

The news was denied by Colonel Ahmed Abda, a military commander in the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, in a phone conversation ‭with Echorouk, adding that it is a‭ ‬shame of Health and it is not true.

A security source from Mali said in a statement to AFP, that “about one hundred cars carrying armed militants of the National Front for the Liberation of Azawad, came today to the neighborhood of Sun Ville in Timbuktu”. Witnesses and a member of the National Front for the Liberation of Azawa, Ahmed Ould Mahmoud, confirmed this information, saying that the militants of the national Front for the Liberation of Azawad entered “Timbuktu on board of more than a hundred cars, adding that they have come to protect and defend the region that extends from Timbuktu to Taoudnit “north of Timbuktu; “This is our goal”.

AFP confirmed that the National Front for the Liberation of Azawad, quoting one of them as saying; “They control ‭the ‭building of ‭civil defense”. ‬

In response to these reports, Col. Ahmed Abda, military leader, commander in the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, said in a telephone conversation with Echorouk ; “This information is false. There is no attack from the front at any place”. He also denied that the they had taken control on any entrances of the city Timbuktu; “The front is composed of the sons of Azawad and is not hostile to the Azawad people. Everyone is armed in Mali, and Azawads adhere to all these fronts and groups of the army, who are working to form it soon under one Azawad flag.The issue is a question of ‭time only” ‭.

The National Front for the Liberation of Azawad controlled on Thursday the north and south entrances of Timbuktu as reported by many media sources, which added that the front, which was established this month, confirms that it is neither a separatist nor Islamic like other groups which had controlled the city until now.

The same sources quoted that the entrances to the east and west and other parts of the city, are still controlled by the two other armed groups that are Ansareddne and the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad “Tuareg separatist rebellion.”

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