Islamist militia in rebel-held northern Mali are recruiting children in a bid to boost their forces, a local elected official and a journalist in the region say.
Both Ansar Dine and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) had recruited dozens of fighters, including children, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous.
Ansar Dine wants to impose sharia law in the region, while AQIM advocates holy war, or jihad.
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In one family alone, three teenagers, aged between 14 and 17 had joined the rebels, the source said.
"They were seduced by the ideology which is supposed to open them the gate to paradise," he said.
"Ansar Dine and AQIM are distributing free food, free medical care. People here like that a lot. At this rate, our youth is finished."
A local journalist confirmed the report.
Religious and security sources reported earlier this month that three top leaders of AQIM -- the Algerians Abou Zeid, Mokhtar Belmokhtar and Yahya Abou Al-Hammam -- had visited Timbuktu.
The news came as Mali's new interim leader Dioncounda Traore threatened to wage total war on the rebel forces as he took his oath of office at a ceremony in the capital Bamako.
And in Ivory Coast, West African defence and foreign ministers met to discuss possible military action against the Tuareg rebels and Islamists militia who have seized control of the north of Mali.
"The rebellion of the MNLA and the other armed movements in the north constitutes a serious threat to the stability of our region...," which had to be confronted, said Ivorian Foreign Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan said.
And that was the responsibility of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), he added.
Burkina Faso's Desire Kadre Ouedraogo, the current president of the ECOWAS commission, said the rebellion risked not just increasing criminality there but aggravating the problem of internally displaced person and refugees.
The 15-nation ECOWAS bloc has already raised the prospect of sending a force of up to 3,000 men to try to reclaim the north.
After ECOWAS chiefs of staff met in Abidjan last week, they said they had drawn up a mandate for a military force to be sent to Mali for consideration by the contributing countries.
