A picture taken on May 25, 2012 shows Malian deserters in a camp near Niamey. The deserters were being guarded by Niger's army. (Boureima Hama/AFP/Getty Images)
The Islamist group, the Movement of Oneness and Jihad (MUJAO), had fought alongside the Tuareg-led group, National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), against the Mali army several months ago to take over portions of the country.
The Islamist militants broke into a building in Gao used by the Tuaregs, forcing one of the latter’s leaders to be airlifted from the scene after being shot in the leg, Al-Jazeera reported.
The MUJAO are seeking to impose shariah law in northern Mali, while the Tuaregs want to create a secular country.
But an official with the NMLA said the buildings that were taken over were not that strategically important.
Referring to the building that was stormed, “This headquarters is just a political office. Not a military building,” Colonel Asaleth Ag Khabi with the NMLA told The Associated Press.
“We are dealing with Islamists that are from Gao, that are here from a long time ago,” he added. “Who were born and raised here. And this combat is not over.”
