07/20/2013 15:03 GMT
BAMAKO, July 20, 2013 (AFP) - Gunmen abducted four polling staff and a local official Saturday in the northern Malian town of Tessalit, a week before a presidential poll meant to restore the country's unity, a local official said.
"Four electoral staff and an elected Tessalit official, all of them Malian... were snatched by gunmen Saturday," an official in the Kidal governor's office told AFP.
He said the five hostages had been at the town hall in Tessalit, a remote town some 200 kilometres (125 miles) north of the flashpoint northern city of Kidal, to plan the distribution of ID cards to registered voters when they were kidnapped.
"The governor is currently in an emergency meeting in Kidal to see what needs to be done. We have not yet had any news on the abductees," he said.
An African military source in Kidal, where four people were killed in pre-election violence Thursday, confirmed receiving information about a kidnapping involving polling staff and an elected official, but did not specify the number of victims.
A Malian security ministry official said the kidnapping appeared to be the work of the minority Tuareg rebel group the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA).
"Everything indicates this is an attack by the MNLA, which doesn't want there to be an election," the official said.
The MNLA took control of Kidal in February after a French-led military intervention ousted Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist fighters who had seized control of most of northern Mali.
The Malian authorities finally reclaimed the city after signing a deal with the MNLA and another Tuareg group on June 18 aimed at reuniting the country and clearing the way for elections to restore democratic rule.
Under the deal, MNLA forces moved into barracks as 150 regular Malian troops were deployed to secure Kidal ahead of the July 28 vote.
The kidnappings come after violence between Tuaregs and Mali's majority black population rocked Kidal on Thursday and Friday.
Officials said armed men went on a rampage Thursday, looting and ransacking shops and businesses, killing four people and wounding many others. On Friday, unidentified arsonists set fire to the city's central market.
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