More than 400 teachers in Mali are refusing to return to work in Kidal in the insecure north of the country, RFI reports.

The international French broadcaster says they left in 2014, which was the year Tuareg separatists seized the area.

Much of the north-east remains lawless despite a subsequent peace deal between the government and Tuareg rebels.

Djibrila Samaké, a teaching union official, told RFI that people in Kidal remained “scared”, and teachers wanted to be assured of security before returning to the remote desert region.