BAMAKO, Mali ( AP) — Mali’s Tuareg rebels, who have seized control of the country’s distant north in the chaotic aftermath of a military coup in the capital, declared independence today of their Azawad nation.

“We, the people of the Azawad,” they said in a statement published on the rebel website, “proclaim the irrevocable independence of the state of the Azawad starting from this day, Friday, April 6, 2012.”

The military chiefs of 13 of Mali’s neighbors met Thursday in Ivory Coast to hash out plans for a military intervention to push back the rebels in the north, as well as to restore constitutional rule after disgruntled soldiers last month stormed the presidential palace and sent the democratically elected leader into hiding. The confusion in the capital created an opening for the rebels in the north, who have been attempting to claim independence for more than 50 years.

France, which earlier said it is willing to offer logistical support for a military invasion, announced today that it does not recognize the new Tuareg state.

“A unilateral declaration of independence that is not recognized by African states means nothing for us,” said French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet. The European Union concurred.

“We will certainly not accept this declaration. It’s out of the question,” said Richard Zinc, the head of the European Union delegation in Bamako.

The traditionally nomadic Tuareg people have been fighting for independence for the northern half of Mali since at least 1958, when Tuareg elders wrote a letter addressed to the French president asking their colonial rulers to carve out a separate homeland called “Azawad” in their language. Instead the north, where the lighter-skinned Tuareg people live, was made part of the same country as the south, where the dark-skinned ethnic groups controlled the capital and the nation’s finances.

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