Mali Tuareg Rebels Say in Control of Kidal, Ban Urges Ceasefire

Tuareg militants fighting the Malian army in the rebel stronghold of Kidal said Wednesday they had taken control of the flashpoint town, taking prisoners.

"We now control the whole town of Kidal, we have prisoners," Mohamed Ag Rhissa, one of the leaders of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, told Agence France Presse by telephone.

A United Nations source told AFP that Tuareg militants killed several Malian soldiers during clashes.

The fighting shattered an uneasy calm which had held since the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) took 32 civil servants hostage during a battle which left eight Malian soldiers and 28 rebels dead.

"The noise of gunfire has stopped... There are prisoners and deaths among the Malian army's ranks," a source from the MINUSMA, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali, told AFP, adding that the rebels appeared to have the upper hand.

The fighting first broke out during a visit to Kidal on Saturday by Prime Minister Moussa Mara, whose government is backed by French soldiers who have helped dislodge rebels and armed Islamic extremists from the restive desert north.

Later on Wednesday, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon demanded an immediate ceasefire in Mali.

"The secretary general is deeply concerned by the rapidly deteriorating situation in Kidal," Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

"He calls for the immediate cessation of fighting and the establishment of a ceasefire ... He condemns the killing of civilians and calls on the perpetrators to be held accountable."

Ban urged all the parties to the conflict to abide by the terms of the June 2013 "Ouagadougou Preliminary Agreement", a ceasefire deal which laid out terms for fighters to be demobilized.