Mali rebels sign pact to create state

Mali rebel groups Ansar ud-din and the Touareg Movement for the Liberation of Azawad said they have signed an agreement to carve out a new Islamic state in the north of the country.

The group of ethnic Touaregs, aided by Islamist fighters, declared independence in the northern Mali territory they call Azawad, two weeks after the March 22 coup in Bamako.

“There will now only be one country with one flag,” Attaye Ag Mohamed, a spokesman for liberation movement, said in a phone interview. “There will be military security and defense of Azawad. And in the coming days a government will be formed.”

The Touaregs, traditionally nomadic camel herders, have waged battles for autonomy in Mali and neighboring Niger in the five decades since the countries became independent from colonial ruler France. The most recent uprising was bolstered by Touaregs who returned from Libya after the October death of that country’s leader, Moammar Gadhafi, according to the United Nations.

This “shows that it is urgent for us to cope with the situation,” Amadou Toure, communication minister, said on Radio Mali. “The recovery project of the north is difficult.”

Mali vies with Tanzania to be Africa’s third-biggest gold producer. Anglogold Ashanti Ltd. and Gold Fields Ltd., Africa’s two largest producers of the metal, mine for gold in the country. Mali accounts for about two-thirds of the gold output of London-listed Randgold Resources Ltd.