BAMAKO (Reuters) – About 200 soldiers claiming to be government loyalists have moved back into northern Mali saying they will fight to take it back from Tuareg-led separatist and Islamist rebels that routed the army across the region three weeks ago.

The troop movement just inside Mali’s eastern border with Niger came as witnesses said gunmen in rebel-held Timbuktu, near the northwestern border with Mauritania, opened fire to disperse residents protesting against the occupation of their town.

BAMAKO, April 17 (Reuters) – Mali named a leading scientist
as its caretaker prime minister on Tuesday but its path back to
civilian rule after last month’s coup was thrown into doubt as
soldiers arrested key allies of the ousted president, Amadou
Toumani Toure.

The coup emboldened Tuareg-led rebels to seize control of
the northern half of the West African country, a zone larger
than France which security experts now fear could become a haven
for al Qaeda allies already operating largely unchecked there.

BAMAKO (Reuters) – Former parliament speaker Dioncounda Traore took over as Mali’s interim president on Thursday from the leaders of last month’s coup, promising to hold elections and fight rebels occupying half the country.

Traore, 70, a labor activist turned politician, was sworn in by Supreme Court President Nouhoum Tapily in the capital Bamako as part of a deal to restore civilian rule after army officers staged a March 22 coup in the West African state.

DAKAR (Reuters) – Tuareg fighters are celebrating the seizure of key towns in Mali’s north as a historic victory in their half-century battle for a desert homeland.

But for the Sahel region and wider world, their lightning advance, made as the distant southern capital Bamako struggled with the aftermath of a coup, poses a security nightmare.

BAMAKO (Reuters) – Mali’s junta leader appealed for outside help to secure the West African country on Friday as separatist Tuareg rebels took the strategic northern town of Kidal and advanced towards new targets further south.

Arms spilling out of Libya from last year’s conflict have bolstered a northern rebellion in Mali. President Amadou Toumani Toure was facing rising unpopularity over his failure to halt the rebellion before he was toppled in last week’s coup.

BAMAKO (Reuters) – Mali’s junta leader appealed for outside help to secure the West African country after separatist Tuareg rebels took the strategic northern town of Kidal on Friday in their biggest victory yet.

Arms spilling out of Libya from last year’s conflict have bolstered a northern rebellion in Mali. President Amadou Toumani Toure was facing rising unpopularity over his failure to halt the rebellion before he was toppled in last week’s coup.

BAMAKO/ABIDJAN (Reuters) – Mali’s neighbours on Thursday gave the leaders of last week’s coup 72 hours to begin handing back power to civilians or face a crippling closure of trade borders, diplomatic isolation and a freeze in funding from the regional central bank.

The West African country is an indirect victim of last year’s conflict in Libya, from where weapons spilled out and bolstered a northern rebellion. The coup was led by soldiers who complain the government has not given them adequate means to fight off the uprising.

BAMAKO/ABIDJAN (Reuters) – Jets carrying West African presidents for a meeting with Mali’s new military leaders were forced to turn back mid-flight on Thursday after hundreds of supporters of last week’s coup invaded Bamako’s main runway.

An official from regional bloc ECOWAS said the meeting, aimed at pressuring coup leaders to swiftly restore constitutional rule after they ousted President Amadou Toumani Toure, could be rescheduled for Friday if security allowed.

BAMAKO/ABIDJAN, March 29 (Reuters) – West African presidents
scheduled to meet Mali’s junta leaders on Thursday were forced
to turn around mid-flight after reports of pro-junta protests at
the airport and in the capital, sources said.

An official at Ivory Coast’s presidency confirmed the
airplane carrying President Alassane Ouattara, one of a
delegation of six heads of state from regional bloc ECOWAS meant
to arrive in Mali, had returned to the capital Abidjan.

BAMAKO (Reuters) – Thousands of demonstrators chanted pro-junta slogans in Mali’s capital on Wednesday, protesting against the threats of foreign powers to use sanctions to force the leaders of last week’s military coup to step down.

Deposed leader Amadou Toumani Toure, meanwhile, said in his first public comments since he was ousted that he was free and unharmed somewhere inside the West African nation, and called for a swift solution to the crisis.