11/23/2013 02:29 GMT
by Serge Daniel
BAMAKO, November 23, 2013 (AFP) - Kidal, the sand-swept desert home of numerous armed factions in the most isolated, inhospitable corner of Mali, is preparing for legislative elections on Sunday under the ever-present threat of bloodshed.
Capital of the harsh Saharan region of the same name and the cradle of the nomadic Tuareg, the town has slipped from the regimented control of separatist rebels into a state of lawless anarchy which allowed the recent murders of two French journalists by Islamists.
"The Malian army, the Tuareg rebels, the UN force and the Islamists are all armed in Kidal," said a local government employee on condition of anonymity.
"We don't know who's doing what, there is no life here, every part of the city is controlled by an armed group."
Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita recently described the situation in Kidal as "unacceptable", while his defence minister Soumeilou Boubeye Maiga conceded that "Kidal is the only region at the moment where the sovereignty of the state is not effective".
A coalition of parties opposed to a military coup in March last year that precipitated the fall of northern Mali to Islamists has asked the government to postpone Kidal's participation in the nationwide vote for a new national assembly.
But the vote is set to go ahead amid a security operation involving Malian soldiers, African peacekeepers and the French deployment, boosted from 200 to 350 troops in the wake of the November 2 murders of Radio France International journalists Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
Non-existent campaign
If the parliamentary election campaign has failed to capture the imagination of ordinary Malians, it has been all but non-existent in the Kidal region, where only 30,000 voters out of a total of 6.5 million countrywide are registered.
Echoing the apathy evident during the August presidential election, many of Kidal's inhabitants are dismissing the parliamentary polls as a "sham" and expect a weak turnout, perhaps lower than the 11 percent who made it to the polling booths when Keita was elected.
Such indifference is hardly surprising in a region which gave birth to the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), a secular, separatist fighting force which has denounced the "marginalisation" of northern Mali and is calling for autonomy from the elites 1,500 kilometres (930 miles) away in Bamako.
The MNLA was routed last year by armed Islamists linked to Al-Qaeda who occupied northern Mali, but made a comeback to Kidal in late January, taking advantage of a French-led military operation which ousted the extremists.
But AQIM's murder of the journalists and a deadly attack on Chadian peacekeepers by the group in October have underlined that the MNLA's grip on Kidal has been loosened as foreign troops have entered the region to secure Mali's return to democracy.
Four legislators will be elected to represent the Kidal region, taking their place among 143 other members of the new national assembly, being launched as part of Mali's long road back to economic recovery and parliamentary democracy.
Almost all the candidates in Kidal are members of the High Council for the Unity of Azawad, a Tuareg political movement which, alongside the MNLA, signed a peace accord with the government in June allowing the staging of the presidential elections and peace talks, which have yet to take place.
"I am confident. I know that the elections will bring peace. We want to negotiate and we need the government to agree to negotiate," said Hamada Ag Bibi, a candidate for Keita's party, the Rally for Mali (RPM).
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