Some 1,000 troops from Chad led by the President’s son advanced toward the mountains of northeast Mali on Thursday to join the French search-and-destroy operations hunting Islamist jihadists.
A column of 100 Chadian armoured vehicles, jeeps and supply trucks rolled out of Kidal, the Saharan town 1,200 km northeast of the capital Bamako.
From Kidal, French and Chadian forces backed by French warplanes are striking against Islamist rebel hideouts in the Adrar des Ifoghas mountain range straddling the border with Algeria.
President Idriss Deby’s son, Gen. Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, commanded the Chadian column.
He told Reuters its mission was to “fight terrorism, and eradicate it from the region”, a reference to the al Qaeda-allied fighters in the mountains who are being bombarded almost daily by French aircraft.
More than 2,500 troops from Chad and Niger are assisting 4,000 French soldiers in the second phase of Paris’ four-week-old intervention against al Qaeda and its allies in Mali.
This is supported by Africa, the U.S. and Europe as a strike against radical jihadists threatening international attacks.
France’s Operation Serval had retaken the main urban areas of Mali’s north, including Timbuktu and Gao, and is now pursuing the retreating jihadists into the remote northeast.
Malian troops are moving up behind to secure the recaptured locations.
Malian Defence Minister Gen. Yamoussa Camara told Reuters the Malian army intended to follow the French and Chadians up to Tessalit close to the Algerian border.
“That is going to take some time. The enemy’s offensive has been broken, they’ve lost a lot of equipment, but there are pockets of resistance scattered across the country,” he said.
France has said it wants to start pulling troops out of its former colony in March and would like to see a UN peacekeeping force deployed by April.
Pro-autonomy Tuareg MNLA fighters, whose revolt last year defeated Mali’s army and seized the north before being hijacked by Islamist radicals, have said they are controlling Kidal and other northeast towns abandoned by the fleeing Islamist rebels.
Tuareg desert nomads, offering local knowledge as guides, have said they will help the French and Chadians hunt down the al Qaeda-allied insurgents in the desert and mountains.
However, this created a potentially sensitive situation as Mali’s government and army insist on restoring Bamako’s sovereignty over every corner of Mali, including the vast and empty desert zone which the Tuaregs claimed as their homeland.
“It is out of the question that we would abandon any place to the MNLA,” Defence Minister Camara said.
In the absence of Malian government troops in Kidal for the moment, Tuareg MNLA fighters in their own 4×4 vehicles were accompanying the Chadians as they headed north toward the mountains, a Reuters reporter in Kidal said.
France has urged Mali’s government to open a dialogue with the Tuaregs to settle grievances over alleged neglect and mistreatment that had triggered series of Saharan rebellions by the “blue men of the desert” since Mali’s 1961 independence.
The U.S. added its voice on Thursday to this call for talks with the Tuaregs, urging a political settlement and elections to restore democratic rule in Mali.
The Malian military that staged a coup in March last year retains influence.
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