UN soldiers have evacuated a camp in the strategic town of Kidal in Mali's volatile north, which has been wracked by separatist violence.
"We left Kidal this morning," a source in the UN peacekeeping mission based in the town told the AFP on Tuesday.
The convoy of over 100 vehicles was headed for Gao, another key town in the north about 330 kilometres (200 miles) away.
Tensions are expected to rise further in Kidal following the UN departure.
Mission ‘failure’
The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), whose strength has hovered around 15,000 soldiers and police officers, has seen 180 of its members killed.
While the final departure from Kidal was initially planned for the second half of November, a MINUSMA official recently said it could be just a matter of days before the peacekeepers left.
Non-essential personnel have been the first to withdraw.
Following a coup in 2020, Mali's new military rulers in June ordered the peacekeepers out, proclaiming the "failure" of their mission.
The original plan was for the peacekeeping force to have withdrawn from the West African nation by the end of the year, but the UN troops began withdrawing from their compounds as early as July.
Renewed hostilities
The MINUSMA withdrawal has exacerbated rivalries between armed groups present in the north of the country and the Malian state.
These groups do not want the UN camps handed back to the Malian army, saying such a move would contravene ceasefire and peace deals struck with Bamako in 2014 and 2015.
However, the army is pushing to take back control of the evacuated camps.
The Al-Qaeda-linked Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM) has also stepped up attacks against the military.
