Tuareg separatist forces take Timbuktu

In a statement, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) said they had "liberated" the town of Gao on Saturday, the BBC reports.Few details of the situation in the town of 90,000 people have emerged since the rebels moved in, but witnesses quoted by AFP news agency said unknown attackers had forced open the gates of the prison and several public building had been looted by civilians.

Officials with several international non-governmental organisations based in Gao have fled the town, a security source told the agency.

Coup leader Captain Amadou Sanogo said in a statement read out on state television that soldiers had decided not to fight the rebels in Gao because the town's military camps were close to residential areas. Whilst the BBC reports that Timbuktu was surrounded but a later Al Jazeera report confirms that Timuktu has fallen.
 
Appealing for support from the international community, the current chairman of Ecowas, Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara, said on Saturday that Mali's territorial integrity must be preserved "at all costs".
"We must succeed because if Mali is divided, carved up, it is a bad example," he added.
Ecowas has threatened to close land borders, freeze assets and impose a financial blockade if the army does not stand down before Monday.

The fast moving situation has outmanouevered the Malian forces and caught regional and international supporters by surprise . Ecowas has put a force of 2000 soldiers on standby but to retake the North of Mali will require considerably more military support.Whilst it may be possible to reconcile the  coup forces and restore democracy to the South reuniting the northern Azawad region with the rest of Mali may prove more difficult.