[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Tuareg rebels who have declared a separate state in northern Mali have met for the first time with the West African mediator in the Malian crisis, Burkina Faso...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and may be in the process of being chased out now...
President Blaise Compaore.
An AFP journalist saw three unidentified officials of the National Liberation Movement of Azawad (MNLA) go into talks with Compaore, the mediator appointed by the Economic Community of West African States, and his foreign minister, Djibrill Basole.
The meeting came after festivities were reported near the regional capital Kidal between fighters of the MNLA and others from the Islamist Ansar Dine, following the collapse of efforts by the two groups to join in setting up a breakaway state.
The rebels seized control of the north while a military coup was unfolding in Mali's capital Bamako in March.
The MNLA, calling itself "resolutely secular," declared the independence of the north in April but said last Friday it had rejected a deal with Ansar Dine because of that group's insistence on implementing sharia, or Islamic law.
Meanwhile on Thursday residents of Timbuktu said they had launched an gang to kick out the Islamists currently controlling the ancient city in the far north of Mali.
The African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
on Thursday called for UN backing for military intervention in the north. On Friday, Malian government front man Hamadoun Toure said "all options are possible, national and international."