BAMAKO
By Fatouma Harber
A northern Mali rebel movement said Wednesday that it had opened an "embassy" in Dutch capital Amsterdam.
"We opened an embassy in Amsterdam on Tuesday," Mossa Ag Attaher, spokesman for the rebel National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, told Anadolu Agency.
He said the embassy's inauguration ceremony had included a presentation on the culture of Mali's Tuaregs, a nomadic ethnic group that lives in different parts of the Saharan interior.
Attaher said the embassy inauguration had been attended by certain sympathizers, noting that the mission had officially opened its doors on Wednesday.
The Dutch embassy in Mali, however, said the presumed embassy represented little more than a private political/cultural initiative – rather than a recognized diplomatic mission.
In a statement, the embassy added that the Netherlands was keen to maintain Mali's unity, noting that the country managed its relations with the Netherlands through its embassy in Brussels.
Local Malian newspapers, meanwhile, said the National Movement for the Liberation Azawad was expected to open additional embassies in other states – including Switzerland and Russia – in the future.
The move prompted some observers to assert that the movement was not ready to give up its dream of independence in northern Mali.
Azawad covers a large territory in northern Mali, including the old city of Timbuktu and the northern city of Kidal.
The Malian government is currently conducting negotiations in Algeria with local rebel groups.
Tension erupted in Mali in 2012 following a failed coup and a Tuareg rebellion that ultimately allowed Al-Qaeda-linked groups to take over half of the country.
Former colonial power France, for its part, sent troops to Mali and – with the help of Chadian and other African forces – managed to flush the Islamists from the country's north.
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