Islamist fighters from  the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa Islamist fighters from  the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa announced they have occupied the Algerian diplomatic consulate north-east of Mali on Thursday morning, holding many Algerian diplomats hostage. They have also raised the black flag of the Salafists movement.
AFP news agency quoted a witness in Bamako as saying “I stand now before the Algerian consulate district 4 in Gao. Armed Islamists entered the consulate and arrested diplomats and staff. They removed the Algerian flag and raised theirs.”
The same source said that Islamists are spread throughout the consulate describing them as \"mostly black.”  This was confirmed by another witness who said  “I  am standing near the consulate and see armed black men around the consulate and inside. They have raised a black flag with Arabic writing on it instead of the Algerian flag.” A third witness reported a similar scene saying
\"I saw the Salafists flag where the Algerian one used to be on the consulate, but the Consul’s house still has the Algerian flag raised.”
Islamist and Tuareg rebels declared that the movement has \"ended the Malian occupation of the whole city of Gao through taking control of the city on Saturday.”.
The Algerian authorities have neither confirmed nor denied this news.
Meanwhile  in a statement issued on Wednesday, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad denied the seizure by extremist groups of  some of the liberated towns in Azawad. The movement said that the \"Malian media and some other complicit international media are against the Azawad people’s legitimate struggle and are  still waging a fierce media campaign against the movement, and this news has nothing to do with the truth.”
The Movement  claimed reports by the AFP news agency were  \"completely untrue\", stressing that it would  not allow anyone to stand in the way of their \"legitimate struggle\"  or hinder the liberation of Azawad and the  realisation of  the Azawadian dream.  The statement said it held on to its territory  and has dominion over all the freed Azawadian cities.
The Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, which has recently split from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb,  declared responsibility for a suicide operation at the beginning of March,  which targetted an Algerian gendarmerie in the city of Tamanrasset (2000 kilometre west of the Algerian capital) that caused dozens of injuries. It also claimed responsibility for kidnapping three Westerners from a refugee camp near Tindouf, in southern Algeria.