Separatist rebels take Mali town By William Wallis and Tom Burgis in London and Gideon Rachman in Davos Secular Tuareg fighters have claimed control of the last major Jihadist bastion in Mali's north, the town of Kidal, complicating France's lightning military offensive into the Sahara. Mossa Ag Attaher, spokesman for the separatist National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, which is fighting for the autonomy of Mali's desert north, said his group took Kidal on Monday after Islamists fled French air strikes. He said the MNLA was willing to work with the French to root out "terrorists." But he warned that any advance on the town by the Malian army, which has accompanied the French intervention force, would be treated as "a declaration of war." After the fall to the French of Timbuktu and Gao in recent days, Kidal in Mali's remote north east was the last major town still held by Ansar Dine, a Tuareg-led Islamist group which allied itself to al-Qaeda offshoots last year to seize the northern two-thirds of Mali. The MNLA, whose revolt against the Malian state was sidelined last year by the Islamists, remains implacably opposed to any Malian government intervention. It accuses the army of carrying out atrocities against Tuareg and Arab civilians in towns they have already captured. You are talking about two different armies. We have direct contact with the French and we have asked them for a co-ordinated approach against the terrorists. But the Malian army has nothing to do in Kidal," Mr Attaher told the Financial Times by phone from Mali. The re-emergence of the MNLA underscores the complexity of the conflict France has waded into. The French risk alienating their allies in the Malian government if they leave Kidal in separatist hands. But longer-term stability hinges on a negotiated solution with Tuareg rebels, experts say. Ethnic Tuaregs have fought a succession of wars against the central Malian government since independence from France in 1960, complaining the region they once roamed as nomads has been systematically neglected. The MNLA is demanding military and government autonomy inside a loose federation. Mr Attaher said many young fighters from Ansar Dine have defected to the MNLA since France intervened earlier this month to stave off an Islamist offensive that threatened the capital Bamako. They have been disarmed and stationed separately, he said. Mr Attaher said Islamist forces had mostly withdrawn from towns and were regrouping in desert hide-outs. Some headed north to mountains towards the Algerian border, he said. A large column was close to Burkina Faso, and a third contingent was south of the city of Gao, which French and Malian troops captured on Saturday. Officials in France declined to comment on the situation in Kidal, but called on the MNLA to talk to the French and the Malian forces. France has sent about 3,000 troops to Mali at the request of its government. But it wants to hand over longer-term security operations to a planned 7,700-strong UN-backed African force. Warning that the war was far from over, Alpha Conde, president of neighbouring Guinea, one of the countries contributing troops to the African force, called for a sustained western intervention. "If France had not intervened it would have been a catastrophe," Mr Condé said in an interview with the FT at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The terrorists are not going to vanish into thin air. So we risk another war that would last much longer, which is [in] the Sahara. The Americans, the Europeans, everybody must mobilise, if we don't want the Sahara to become Afghanistan," he added. On Tuesday, the UK government announced that at least 350 British troops are to be sent to Africa to help the French-led efforts. Mr Condé called for the US to deploy unmanned drones to the region a plan which a US official said was already under discussion with the government of neighbouring Niger. The official said that a proposed base in Niger would be used for surveillance drones, rather than air strikes. International donors meeting in Ethiopia have pledged $455.53m (£289m) for an international campaign tackling Islamist militants in Mali -about half the figure African leaders had requested.