French troops on Wednesday entered Kidal, the last Islamist bastion in Mali's north after a whirlwind Paris-led offensive, as France urged peace talks to douse ethnic tensions targeting Arabs and Tuaregs.
The arrival of the French troops in Kidal comes days after the capture of Gao and Timbuktu in a whirlwind three-week campaign that Paris hopes to wind down and hand over to African forces.
"French elements were deployed overnight in Kidal," French army spokesman Thierry Burkhard told AFP in Paris.
Several sources reported that French troops had landed at Kidal's airport.
"We confirm that French aircraft are on the Kidal landing strip and that protection helicopters are in the sky," said a regional security source.
A spokesman for the breakaway Islamic Movement of Azawad, which on Monday announced it had taken control of the town, said its leader was speaking to the French.
Kidal lies 1,500 kilometers northeast of Bamako and until recently was controlled by the Islamist group Ansar Dine. Last Thursday however, the newly formed group announced it had split from Ansar Dine, that it rejected "extremism and terrorism" and wanted to find a peaceful solution to Mali's crisis.
Ansar Dine and two other Islamist groups took advantage of the chaos following a military coup in Bamako last March to seize the north, imposing a brutal form of Islamic law.
Offenders suffered whippings, amputations and in some cases were executed while Islamists also destroyed sacred shrines in the ancient city of Timbuktu that they considered idolatrous.
But in the longer term, Paris regards a political settlement between the government in Bamako and Tuaregs seeking a degree of self-rule as crucial to Mali's stability.
The Malian parliament on Tuesday adopted a political roadmap which included a commitment to holding elections by July and negotiations with representatives of the north.
"This political process now has to advance concretely," French foreign ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot said, urging speedy "negotiations with the legitimate representatives of the peoples of the north and non-terrorist armed groups that recognize the integrity of Mali."
"Only a north-south dialogue will prepare the ground for the Malian state to return to the north of the country," he said.
Meanwhile, an associate curator told AFP Wednesday that most of the priceless ancient books and manuscripts housed in a Timbuktu center were smuggled away before Islamists overran the city last year.
"A vast majority was saved, more than 90 percent," said Shamil Jeppie, Tombouctou Manuscripts Project director at the University of Cape Town.
They were moved during the early months of the insurgency in northern Mali, which has seen armed Islamist groups destroy ancient shrines and tombs in Timbuktu.
AFP