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Mali: Coup leader restores old constitution
The Tuaregs, who dominate the north of the country, have long felt marginalized by the Bambaras who dominate the nation’s south, and whose members are overwhelmingly represented in the junta now leading the nation.
By evening, the airport, the administrative buildings and the military camps inside Timbuktu were under the control of rebels. “The city is totally under their control,” Mayor Ousmane Halle told The Associated Press by phone.
In Gao, which the rebels seized overnight, the insurgents were going from bank to bank trying to force their way into the safes, said resident Hama Dada Toure. And in Kidal, which is now starting its second day under rebel control, residents said that an Islamic faction within the larger rebellion was demanding shopkeepers take down pictures of unveiled women.
A hairdresser who fled the city said that he was told to take down the posters in his beauty shop showing different types of hairstyles, because the women were not covered.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
