Mali has been plunged further into crisis after losing much of its north to Tuareg fighters and other armed groups.<br /><br />The separatist National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) have declared an independent state of Azawad, a zone the size of France, in Mali's desert north.<br /><br />They have an uneasy relationship with Ansar Dine, another Tuareg-led group that swept south, but that wants to impose Islamic law.<br /><br />Al Jazeera's correspondent Mohamed Vall reports from Timbuktu.
