FIFTEEN MALIAN SOLDIERS KIDNAPPED EAST OF KIDAL

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAMAKO 000931

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/16/2017
TAGS: PGOV ASEC ML
SUBJECT: FIFTEEN MALIAN SOLDIERS KIDNAPPED EAST OF KIDAL

REF: BAMAKO 0554

Classified By: Political Officer Aaron Sampson, Embassy Bamako, for
reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)

1.(C) Fifteen Malian soldiers were reportedly kidnapped by
armed men in northern Mali on August 26, while escorting a
team of Agriculture Ministry officials in the Tamensa region,
between Tin-essako and the Malian border with Niger, to
assess the prevalence of locusts. Preliminary reports
indicate that one individual may have been wounded and that
the attackers commandeered 3 vehicles. Postings on a Kidal
Tuareg website reports that the Agriculture team's security
escort, which consisted of 23 Malian soldiers, was
overpowered in Tegarete, about 120 KM east of Kidal near
Tin-essako. Eight of the Malian soldiers were freed shortly
after the incident. Other reports suggest that at least some
of the released soldiers were ethnic Tuaregs. The Malian
government has reportedly dispatched reinforcements by air to
Kidal.

2.(C) The assailants are presumably members of the
newly-formed Niger-Mali Tuareg Alliance (ATNM) led by Ibrahim
Bahanga and his father-in-law Hama ag Sid'ahmed. The
hostages and their kidnappers were last seen heading toward
Niger.

3.(C) Two events last week suggested that Malian officials
were growing increasingly concerned by rumors of an overt
link between Bahanga and Niger's Mouvement des Nigeriens pour
la Justice (MNJ). On August 21 in the northern Malian city
of Gao, Mali and Niger held bi-lateral talks on cross-border
security during which the two nations agreed to increase
surveillance and cooperation along their common border and
consider implementing joint security patrols. For its part,
press reports indicate the MNJ has denied involvement.

4.(C) Other reports indicate Qadhafi may be trying to insert
himself in negotiations between the MNJ, Niger, Mali, and
Malian Tuaregs. Qadhafi invited three Tuareg leaders to
Tripoli the week of 13 August, including ADC leader Iyad ag
Ghali, as well as National Assembly deputies Mohamed Intallah
and Hamato Bajan; although the exact nature of the talks were
unclear. All three hold Malian elective offices, but were
supposedly invited to Libya as representatives of the Malian
Tuareg Community.

5.(U) On August 23, Mali's national television station
broadcast a statement from Alliance for Democracy and Change
(ADC) spokesperson and National Assembly Deputy-elect Ahmada
ag Bibi denying rumors of a link between the ADC and Tuareg
rebels in Niger. Ag Bibi's television appearance followed a
brief trip to Algiers with Minister of Territorial
Administration Kafougouna Kone to discuss the pace of the
Algiers accords implementation. Ag Bibi subsequently told
Radio France that while key aspects of the accords - such as
socio-economic "reinsertion" of former rebel combatants, a
paved road to Kidal and other infrastructure projects - had
not yet been realized, his confidence in the Malian
government's willingness to implement the accords remained
intact. ATNM "vice-president" Hama ag Sid'ahmed has listed
the renegotiation of the Algiers accords, signed by Mali and
the ADC in July 2006, as one of the ATNM's main objectives.

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Comment: An Escalation of Tactics
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6.(C) Although information on the kidnapping of 15 Malian
soldiers remains sparse, yesterday's events indicate that
Bahanga and his handful of followers are the likely culprits
and continue to operate without impediment along the
Mali-Niger border east of Kidal. If these reports are true,
the similarities between this kidnapping and recent ones in
Niger suggest that Bahanga, if not overtly aligned with at
least some members of the MNJ, at least adopted the MNJ's
strategy of hostage taking. Prior to this event, some
Malians were concerned that the Tuaregs who had split from
the ADC would seize a remote military base as leverage in
future negotiations; these kidnappings may then be Bahanga's
alternative avenue for negotiating himself out of hot water
for the attack he led in May of this year that killed at
least four Malian soldiers (reftel). The kidnapping
reinforced concerns among some in Bamako that Bahanga may
consider employing land mines, another weapon in the MNJ's
arsenal.
McCulley