Mali MPs defect to opposition as US piles pressure on Keita

Four Malian MPs have defected to the opposition, citing the "poor governance" of a Bamako administration already reeling from repeated attacks by top US diplomats.

The "lack of vision" of President Ibrahim Boubakar Keita's government had left the north of the country in crisis, youth unemployment soaring and "Malians in despair that the rule of law would ever return," the MPs' resignation letter said.

The four parliamentarians from the ruling Rally for Mali would now join the opposition Alliance for Democracy and Peace, they told AFP.

The resignations are the latest blow to Keita's government following pointed demands on Tuesday by US ambassador to Mali Paul Folmsbee to "sever all ties" with an armed group based in the country's restive north.

The GATIA group has clashed repeatedly and violently with former rebels of the Coordination of Azawad Movements near the city of Kidal, threatening a fragile peace deal signed last year.

Folmsbee added that "all Mali's armed groups have to conform to their obligations as regards the peace agreement," saying the factions' "warmongering" behaviour put civilians at risk.

His comments followed even more strident accusations by US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power, who said on September 23 that insecurity was worsening in Mali, adding the government was absent from "half its territory".

"The peace process can't be just about passing laws and setting up commissions," she added, demanding joint patrols between armed groups and the Malian army begin and support for "proxies that are fuelling conflict" to end.

Northern Mali fell into the hands of jihadists linked to Al-Qaeda in early 2012, briefly backed by Tuareg-led rebels, throwing the country into chaos.

Ongoing international military intervention since January 2013 has driven Islamist fighters away from the major urban centres they had briefly controlled, but large tracts of Mali are still not controlled by domestic or foreign troops.

Analysts say tribal rivalries have led to a deterioration of the security situation in the north, where banditry is also rife.

Large swathes of northern Mali have little access to government services and international interest has dwindled among the humanitarian organisations serving the local populations, putting children at risk of missing school and of malnutrition.

School meals for nearly 180,000 children in about 1,000 schools were in jeopardy, the UN's World Food Programme said this week, in a country where one meal a day was a major incentive for parents to send their children to school.