KIDAL, Mali: A Tuareg militant leader in the volatile north Malian city of Kidal was killed on Saturday when his car exploded barely 300 meters from a UN base where he had been talking with French and UN troops, a Reuters witness and officials said.
A Reuters cameraman saw the car still burning after the blast that killed Cheikh Ag Aoussa.
A spokeswoman for the UN Mali mission, Radhia Achouri, confirmed the incident, which is likely to further ignite tensions between rival pro and anti-government factions of ethnic Tuaregs in Kidal.
A spokesman for French forces in Mali did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Tuareg-led Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) and rival pro-government “Gatia” militia fighters have clashed sporadically since a power-sharing deal, in place since February, began to crumble. Up to 20 people were killed in two days of fighting between them in July.
Aoussa was a senior commander in a CMA-allied group.
A security source suggested Aoussa’s death was the accidental result of running over a land mine. But Almou Ag Mohamed, spokesman for his HCUA militant group, said “it is clear an explosive was attached to his vehicle inside the camp.”
The Tuaregs, nomadic pastoralists who have for centuries survived off trade crossing the Sahara and connecting Africa’s interior with its Mediterranean coast, were at the heart of a 2012 uprising that threw Mali into chaos.
Their rebellion was swiftly hijacked by militants whom the French then intervened in 2013 to chase out.
A UN-backed peace deal between a plethora of Malian armed groups was supposed to draw a line under the violence that has torn apart Africa’s third largest gold producer. Yet it has failed to stop worsening violence in the north and center of this vast, desert nation.
Mali’s military pulled out of Kidal after clashes between the army and Tuareg rebels killed 50 soldiers there in 2014.
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Explosion kills Tuareg leader outside north Mali UN camp
Explosion kills Tuareg leader outside north Mali UN camp
Troops guard Bangladesh depots as fuel crunch hits Asia
- The oil price spike caused by the war in the Middle East has sparked unrest in Bangladesh and exasperation at petrol pumps around Asia
DHAKA: The oil price spike caused by the war in the Middle East has sparked unrest in Bangladesh and exasperation at petrol pumps around Asia, where many economies are heavily dependent on fossil fuel imports.
Even as governments move to limit the impact on fuel prices, lines have formed at petrol stations in countries including Vietnam, Pakistan and the Philippines, although the situation remains stable elsewhere.
In Bangladesh — which imports 95 percent of its oil and gas needs — the military has been deployed at major oil depots, as police patrol in and around filling stations.
“We haven’t received supply from the depot, but the bike riders weren’t convinced and vandalized the station,” said petrol station worker Ashrafuzzaman Dulal told AFP, describing violence on Sunday.
On Tuesday his station Shahjahan Traders, one of the oldest in the capital Dhaka, had hung a banner apologizing because its stock had run out.
The South Asian nation of 170 million people has started fuel rationing, sent students home and scrapped celebratory light displays over the energy crunch.
One man was killed on Saturday night in the southern Bangladeshi district of Jhenaidah after an altercation over refueling with staff.
Following the 25-year-old’s death, angry crowds torched three buses and vandalized a filling station, police said.
- ‘So, so angry’ -
On Tuesday, queues stretched for 1.5 kilometers (nearly one mile) through Dhaka’s city center.
“My boss left the car here and took a rickshaw to reach his destination,” Kamrul Hasan, who was waiting in a vehicle almost at the end of the queue, told AFP.
Filling station worker Akhtar Hossain said he had not stopped for hours.
“Even during the Gulf War, we didn’t experience this sort of rush,” Hossain told AFP.
Oil prices fell Tuesday after US President Donald Trump said the US-Israel war on Iran could end “very soon.”
The previous day, the price of benchmark crude had rocketed past $100 a barrel — its highest level since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The market instability came as Iran targeted the crude-rich Gulf with missile and drone barrages.
Maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz — a key Gulf waterway through which a fifth of global crude passes — has also all but halted since the war broke out.
Thousands of motorbike riders queued for fuel Tuesday in Vietnam, where prices for unleaded gasoline have surged more than 20 percent.
Vietnam has so far avoided mass shortages, with the government scraping duties on many imported petroleum products.
A 57-year-old who gave his name as Tuan told AFP at a Hanoi petrol station that he was “so, so angry.”
“I have been waiting in line for almost one hour. Then my turn came, and they said their system is down,” he said as dozens of drivers waited but others gave up.
- Myanmar price spike -
Vehicles also lined up in scorching heat at Philippine petrol stations this week, as officials warned against hoarding fuel, with similar scenes unfolding in Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Enrico Guda, a gas station attendant in Metro Manila, said the station had double its usual daily workload as people rushed to fuel up before prices jumped.
In Myanmar, which imports 90 percent of its fuel oil and has long suffered from a fragile energy supply chain owing to the civil war consuming the country, traffic curbs are in place.
From Saturday, half of private vehicles have been ordered off the roads each day to preserve oil stocks.
“Some drivers depend on their vehicles for work and survival... the new system has made it harder for them to run their businesses,” said Hla Htay, 56, a car rental business owner.
In the Myanmar frontier town of Tachileik, an AFP reporter saw signs cross-border supplies from Thailand had been cut — with some petrol stations shut last week after an up-to threefold price spike the day before.
In several other Asian countries, from Japan to Indonesia, as well as China, India and Afghanistan, panic appears not yet to have hit, apart from a few sporadic queues for petrol.
“I used to fill up regularly once a week, but now I try to fill up whenever I find a cheaper gas station,” South Korean businessman Lee In-tae, 42, told AFP in Seoul.
Even as governments move to limit the impact on fuel prices, lines have formed at petrol stations in countries including Vietnam, Pakistan and the Philippines, although the situation remains stable elsewhere.
In Bangladesh — which imports 95 percent of its oil and gas needs — the military has been deployed at major oil depots, as police patrol in and around filling stations.
“We haven’t received supply from the depot, but the bike riders weren’t convinced and vandalized the station,” said petrol station worker Ashrafuzzaman Dulal told AFP, describing violence on Sunday.
On Tuesday his station Shahjahan Traders, one of the oldest in the capital Dhaka, had hung a banner apologizing because its stock had run out.
The South Asian nation of 170 million people has started fuel rationing, sent students home and scrapped celebratory light displays over the energy crunch.
One man was killed on Saturday night in the southern Bangladeshi district of Jhenaidah after an altercation over refueling with staff.
Following the 25-year-old’s death, angry crowds torched three buses and vandalized a filling station, police said.
- ‘So, so angry’ -
On Tuesday, queues stretched for 1.5 kilometers (nearly one mile) through Dhaka’s city center.
“My boss left the car here and took a rickshaw to reach his destination,” Kamrul Hasan, who was waiting in a vehicle almost at the end of the queue, told AFP.
Filling station worker Akhtar Hossain said he had not stopped for hours.
“Even during the Gulf War, we didn’t experience this sort of rush,” Hossain told AFP.
Oil prices fell Tuesday after US President Donald Trump said the US-Israel war on Iran could end “very soon.”
The previous day, the price of benchmark crude had rocketed past $100 a barrel — its highest level since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The market instability came as Iran targeted the crude-rich Gulf with missile and drone barrages.
Maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz — a key Gulf waterway through which a fifth of global crude passes — has also all but halted since the war broke out.
Thousands of motorbike riders queued for fuel Tuesday in Vietnam, where prices for unleaded gasoline have surged more than 20 percent.
Vietnam has so far avoided mass shortages, with the government scraping duties on many imported petroleum products.
A 57-year-old who gave his name as Tuan told AFP at a Hanoi petrol station that he was “so, so angry.”
“I have been waiting in line for almost one hour. Then my turn came, and they said their system is down,” he said as dozens of drivers waited but others gave up.
- Myanmar price spike -
Vehicles also lined up in scorching heat at Philippine petrol stations this week, as officials warned against hoarding fuel, with similar scenes unfolding in Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Enrico Guda, a gas station attendant in Metro Manila, said the station had double its usual daily workload as people rushed to fuel up before prices jumped.
In Myanmar, which imports 90 percent of its fuel oil and has long suffered from a fragile energy supply chain owing to the civil war consuming the country, traffic curbs are in place.
From Saturday, half of private vehicles have been ordered off the roads each day to preserve oil stocks.
“Some drivers depend on their vehicles for work and survival... the new system has made it harder for them to run their businesses,” said Hla Htay, 56, a car rental business owner.
In the Myanmar frontier town of Tachileik, an AFP reporter saw signs cross-border supplies from Thailand had been cut — with some petrol stations shut last week after an up-to threefold price spike the day before.
In several other Asian countries, from Japan to Indonesia, as well as China, India and Afghanistan, panic appears not yet to have hit, apart from a few sporadic queues for petrol.
“I used to fill up regularly once a week, but now I try to fill up whenever I find a cheaper gas station,” South Korean businessman Lee In-tae, 42, told AFP in Seoul.
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