A day after Mali's northern city of Timbuktu fell to Tuareg rebels of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), it is now reported that Ansar Dine, an Islamist faction that had been cooperating with the rebels, has seized control there, raising its black flag at prominent points. Reports indicate a patchwork of loosely allied factions occupying the city, their ranks swelled by Tuareg and Arab defectors from Mali's army. Gao, the other major northern city, also fell to the rebels over the weekend. (See map) (AP, BBC News, April 2; RFI, April 1)

The head of Libya's Toubou people on March 30 called for international intervention after deadly clashes in the southern oasis town of Sabha. "We demand that the United Nations and European Union intervene to stop the ethnic cleansing of the Toubou," said Issa Abdel Majid Mansur, a former opposition activist under slain dictator Moammar Qaddafi. He accused Arab tribes in Sabha of bombarding a power station providing electricity to areas of southern Libya with a large Toubou population, including Qatrun and Morzuk. The first clashes erupted five days ago after Arab tribesmen accused the Toubou of killing one of their people. The first three days of fighting claimed more than 70 lives, and Zintan Arab militiamen from the north were sent in. A ceasefire was brokered March 28, although continuing clashes have since been reported. Mansur said his people are ready to revive the organization they had formed to oppose Qaddafi in order to fight for their rights in post-Qaddafi Libya—and raised the possibility of separatism. "We announce the reactivation of the Toubou Front for the Salvation of Libya to protect the Toubou people from ethnic cleansing," Mansur told AFP. "If necessary, we will demand international intervention and work towards the creation of a state, as in South Sudan." (AFP, Magharebia, March 30; AFP, March 27)

Presumed Tuareg rebels of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) on March 29 launched an attack on Mali's northern city of Kidal, using shell and rockets as well as small arms—and following through on a promise made in the wake of the coup d'etat a week earlier. During an interview with VOA's Francophone Africa service, MNLA second-in-command Karim ag Matafa said rebels plan to advance toward key cities of Kidal, Timbuktu, and Gao, and claim them as liberated territory. In Bamako, Mali's capital, thousands of junta supporters took to the streets on March 28, backing the military putsch that forced President Amadou Toumani Toure into hiding. Many of the marchers were apparently soldiers and veterans who felt Toure was ineffective in countering the Tuareg insurgency. Pro-junta protesters took over the city's main airstrip, forcing jets carrying West African presidents for a meeting with Mali's new military rulers to turn back mid-flight. Leaders of the regional body ECOWAS organized the trip to pressure the junta to restore constitutional rule. Junta leaders meanwhile announced on state TV that they have drafted a new constitution, and pledged to hold elections—although they did not announce a date. The new constitution supposedly bars coup leaders from running for elected office. (Daily Star, Lebanon, This Day Live, Nigeria, March 30; EuroNews, Jurist, March 29; VOA, March 23)

Amnesty International on Feb. 16 released a report ("Militias Threaten Hope for New Libya") accusing the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) in Libya of allowing the abuse and torture of supporters of former leader Moammar Qaddafi by unofficial militias. In the report, AI alleges that supporters of Qaddafi are being unlawfully detained, tortured and even killed by militias that the NTC has failed to control. The report was compiled by AI representatives who traveled to Libya in January and February and visited 11 facilities used to detain suspected Qaddafi loyalists. AI reported that 12 detainees have been killed while in the custody of these militias and described some of the abuse:

French Development Minister Henri de Raincourt, after a visit to Mali, charged that Tuareg guerillas of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) killed nearly 100 residents in their occupation of Aguelhok, one of several northern towns that have come under attack by the rebels. Raincourt said some of the victims had their throats slit, while others were shot in the head. "The execution method was similar to those used by al-Qaeda," he said, raising the specter of Tuareg collaboration with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Mali's army also accused the rebels of conducting summary executions and working with AQIM. MNLA spokesman Abdoul Karim ag-Matafa said those killed in Aguelhok were soldiers, not civilians.

On the one-year anniversary of the start of the Libyan revolution, the NTC seems to have just lost control of Libya's west to a new federation of militias. From AP, Feb. 13:

Representatives of about 100 militias from western Libya said Monday they had formed a new federation to prevent infighting and allow them to press the country’s new government for further reform. The move was a blow to the Transitional National Council, which helped lead the eight-month uprising against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi and has sought to govern Libya since. The council has largely failed to decommission or bring under its control the hundreds of militias that fought in the war. The leader of the new federation, Col. Mokhtar Fernana, said the council’s committee in charge of integrating revolutionary fighters was taking in men who had fought for Colonel Qaddafi. "This committee is an attempt to hijack the revolution," Colonel Fernana said. One militia commander, Ibrahim al-Madani, said the fighters would not give up their arms to a corrupt government." [Sic]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay charged Jan. 27 that Libya's transitional government must take control of all makeshift prisons to prevent further atrocities against detainees. Pillay says various brigades are holding as many as 8,000 prisoners in 60 detention centers around the country. Pillay added that she is particularly concerned about Black African detainees who are apparently assumed automatically to be Qaddafi-loyalist fighters. She said detainees have been subject to "torture, extrajudicial executions, rape of both men and women." Pillay's statement follows a statement by Amnesty International that "several detainees have died after being subjected to torture in Libya in recent weeks and months... The torture is being carried out by officially recognized military and security entities as well by a multitude of armed militias operating outside any legal framework." Detainees told Amnesty they had been beaten for hours with whips, cables, plastic hoses, metal chains, bars, wooden sticks and given electric shocks.

The deputy head of Libya's National Transitional Council stepped down Jan. 22, a day after anti-government protesters stormed the ruling body's offices in the eastern city of Benghazi. The protesters denounced Ghoga's presence in the NTC, calling him and other former Qaddafi-loyalists “opportunists.” Ghoga was a belated defector to the Libyan rebels from Moammar Qaddafi's government. (VOA, Jan. 22) The following day, a flurry of media reports said that Qaddafi-loyalist fighters had taken the former Qaddafi stronghold of Bani Walid, raising the late dictator's green flag after a battle that left four dead. But on Jan. 24, Col. Salem al-Ouaer, identified as a tribal leader from Bani Walid, told AFP: "The situation is under control and calm is returning." (AFP, Jan. 24; The Guardian, Jan. 23)