20120218
AFP
West African leaders on Friday urged Tuareg rebels to "immediately" end their fresh offensive in northern Mali which has killed dozens and displaced thousands.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) closed a regional summit by voicing "deep concern" at the deteriorating security and humanitarian situation in the Sahel region that stretches across Africa south of the Sahara.

"Calling for an immediate and unconditional cessation of hostilities by the rebels," the leaders in a final statement "ordered them to immediately surrender all occupied zones in" Mali.

They also urged the parties involved in the crisis to secure a peaceful end to the conflict through dialogue.

Global rights watchdog Amnesty International said the escalating fighting between the Tuareg rebels and government forces could plunge the region "into chaos".

"This is the worst human rights crisis in northern Mali for 20 years," said Gaetan Mootoo, Amnesty's researcher on West Africa.

The summit ordered an urgent meeting of military chiefs from the 15-member ECOWAS bloc to review the "emerging security threats" in the Sahel and the Gulf of Guinea, which has been hit by rising piracy.

Tuareg rebels, boosted by the return of those who had been fighting for Moamer Kadhafi in Libya, launched an offensive on January 17 and have attacked several northern towns as they demand autonomy for their nomadic desert tribe.

The UN refugee agency reported Friday that more than 44,000 people have fled into neighbouring Burkina Faso, Niger and Mauritania.

France on Monday condemned the extrajudicial killings of some 82 people in the town of Aguelhok -- some 750 kilometres (460 miles) northeast of the capital Bamako -- accusing the killers of adopting Al-Qaeda-style tactics.

The Malian army confirmed that soldiers and civilians had been summarily executed.