October 08, 2016 - 2:20 PM
BAMAKO, Mali - The spokesman for a former Tuareg rebel group says its leader has been killed after attending a meeting at a United Nations camp in the northern Mali town of Kidal.
Almouzamile Ag Mohamed, spokesman for the High Council for the Unity of Azawad, said Cheick Aoussa was killed Saturday in a car explosion after leaving the U.N. peacekeeping mission's Kidal camp where he met with officials to discuss security.
Aoussa's group, along with other Tuareg separatist groups, is a signatory to a 2015 peace accord with Mali's government. A French-led military intervention drove Islamic extremists out of north Mali in 2013, though instability remains.
Aoussa's group in 2013 broke ties with al-Qaida-linked Ansar Dine extremists who continue to carry out attacks on peacekeepers and Malian security forces, killing several last week.
News from © The Associated Press, 2016