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Mali Tuareg rebels kidnap 30 civil servants

File photo: Prime Minister Moussa Mara, 29 April 2014 Prime Minister Moussa Mara (centre) said that Mali was "at war" with the separatists. Photo: BBC NEWS
BBC NEWS

Armed rebels in northern Mali have taken about 30 civil servants hostage as the prime minister visited the area.

Several armed Tuareg rebels clashed with government soldiers in Kidal on Saturday and abducted the officials. Their whereabouts are unclear.

In 2012 a Tuareg rebellion in north Mali triggered a military coup.

Civilian rule was re-established in 2013, but Islamist and separatist forces remain active in parts of the north.

The civil servants had met Prime Minister Moussa Mara at the local governor's office on Saturday afternoon.

The hostages are officials posted in the town by Mali's government as a mark of sovereignty, the BBC's Alex Duval Smith in Bamako reports.

Exchanges of fire between the army and Tuareg rebels began before the prime minister arrived, and shots were still being heard on Sunday, our correspondent adds.

Mr Mara said that the government was now "at war" with the separatists.

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