An attack overnight in northern Mali by a pro-government armed group including suicide bombers killed a dozen people, security sources said today.
"GATIA fighters, accompanied by suicide bombers, attacked a rebel Tuareg and anti-government Arab position in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday near the town of Tabankort. There were a dozen deaths in total," a Western military source told AFP.
"The situation is very volatile, and it is essential to calm the situation," added the source.
A security source in MINUSMA -- the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali -- confirmed the deaths, adding that two fighters blew themselves up while a third was killed before he was able to detonate his explosives.
GATIA is the commonly-used name for the pro-government Imghad and Allies Tuareg Self-Defence Group.
Tabankort is part of a large swathe of desert which is the cradle of a Tuareg separatist movement that wants independence for the homeland it calls "Azawad", and from which several rebellions have been launched since the 1960s.
The town, northwest of the rebel stronghold of Kidal, is controlled by pro-government militias however which have clashed over the last month with armed rebels, leading to the deaths of fighters and civilians.
The UN was forced to withdraw a plan to create a "temporary security zone" in Tabankort after a huge protest in the northern city of Gao by pro-government youths who said it would undermine loyalist armed groups fighting the rebels.
Three people were killed Tuesday on a second day of demonstrations against the UN military mission.
Witnesses described a huge crowd of angry youths throwing stones and attempting to storm the MINUSMA headquarters in Gao to protest the UN taking control of a troubled area north of the city.
MINUSMA initially denied it was behind the deaths but later said it would investigate to establish its role in the violence.
The agreement between MINUSMA and three rebel groups -- the High Council for the Unity of Azawad, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad and an anti-government wing of the Arab Movement of Azawad -- would have placed Tabankort under exclusive control of UN troops.
MINUSMA helicopters destroyed a rebel vehicle near Tabankort in "self-defence" on January 20 following what it described as "direct fire with heavy weapons" on its peacekeepers.
