06 June 2014 defenceWeb (Reuters)

Mali is to introduce compulsory national service for men and women aged 18 to 35, the government announced, after clashes between northern Tuareg separatists and the army last month.

A communique issued following Wednesday's cabinet meeting said President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita's government had taken the decision to impose six-month national service "to develop a feeling of patriotism and the instinct for national defence".

"The legislative texts will be adopted by the end of the year so the scheme can start from 2015," Mahamar Mohamed El Moctar, chief of staff at the Youth Ministry, told Reuters on Thursday.

"As well as the military aspect, it will involve training in handling weapons and fostering in our youth a sense of citizenship, of civic spirit, of the nation and the homeland," he said, adding that national service would be compulsory for both men and women.

Mali's army suffered an embarrassing defeat at the hands of Tuareg separatists last month after it attempted to seize their stronghold of Kidal. The army was quickly overrun by rebel forces as U.N. and French peacekeepers declined to intervene.

Popular faith in the army had already been shaken by the ease with which it was overrun in early 2012 by a coalition of Tuareg separatists and Islamist militants who seized the northern two thirds of Mali.

A series of student protests in recent months have created frustration at what some critics have called a lack of patriotism among youth, in the wake of last year's French-led war to liberate northern Mali from the Islamists.

"Our priority is not to prepare for war, as one might think in the current context, but to create a new citizen," Soubounou Djibril, secretary-general at the Youth Ministry, said of the national service plan.

Keita, elected by a landslide in August 2013, earned a reputation for toughness in crushing student protests as prime minister in the 1990s. He has promised to restore a sense of national pride in the landlocked former French colony.

Mali last had national service from 1983 to 1991.

05 June 2013 14:24 defenceWeb (Reuters)

The Malian army said it seized the village of Anefis following heavy fighting with the Tuareg separatist MNLA and was heading towards the nearby town of Kidal, the rebels' last stronghold.

It was the first fighting between the MNLA and the Malian army since a French-led military offensive launched in January. The French campaign ended Islamists' 10-month domination of Mali's desert north but left the Tuareg rebels in control of Kidal.

Mali's interim government accused the MNLA of violence against non-Tuaregs on Monday. The army has vowed to retake Kidal before national elections scheduled for late July, Reuters reports.

"Our troops have taken Anefis this morning after intense fighting," said army spokesman Colonel Souleymane Maiga, adding that the fighting had begun early on Wednesday.

Moussa Ag Acharatoumane, Paris-based spokesman for the MNLA, said in a statement there was fighting between the Malian forces and MNLA fighters in Anefis but did not provide further details.

The MNLA has rejected Bamako's calls for it to lay down its weapons, saying it would resist any attempt to retake Kidal. It has said it is open to negotiations with the government if northern Mali's right to self-determination is recognized.

The MNLA was not targeted by the French offensive and has since been able to retake some areas, including Kidal. But this has strained relations between France and the transitional government in the southern capital, Bamako.

The MNLA rose up early last year, calling for the creation of a Tuareg homeland in northern Mali. It joined forces with al Qaeda-associated fighters and together they overran the north, but the better armed Islamists quickly took control of the rebellion.