urged Libya to increase security at the border post. Abdelhakim Belhadj of the Tripoli Military Council expressed deep regret over the disorder at the Ras Ajdir border crossing and strongly condemned "any attack that violates the sanctity of Tunisian soil." In mid-January 2012, the Malian military clashed with the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad in Aguelhok, Ménaka, and Tessalit in northern Mali, losing at least one soldier to several Tuareg militants in the process of repulsing the rebels' attack. A statement by the Malian government said the assailants "included forces that returned from Libya". In March, the Malian government of Amadou Toumani Touré was ousted in a coup by Malian soldiers over its handling of the insurgency in the country. In June 2013, a peace agreement was signed between the government and Tuareg militants, after intervention in the conflict by the French Armed Forces. Politics Public protests By December 2011, the NTC were facing protests in Benghazi over the pace of reforms and lack of transparency in the new Libyan government. Protesters were criticizing the NTC and its chairman Mustafa Abdul Jalil and demanding that former Gaddafi supporters would be excluded from governing posts in the new Libyan state. Jalil called for patience and promised that personal details and official information of all government officials would be published publicly on the Internet in time. On 19 January 2012, the vice president of the NTC, Abdul Hafiz Ghoga, was surrounded and jostled by a mob of protesters at the University of Benghazi where he was attending a memorial ceremony for those killed during the civil war. He escaped unharmed. Witnesses said the crowd accused him of opportunism due to his belated defection from Gaddafi's government. The NTC responded to the incident by saying "every attack or aggression against the National Transitional Council represents an attack on the sovereignty of the Libyan people and its glorious revolution." On 22 January 2012, Ghoga resigned from the NTC, saying he did not want the "atmosphere of hatred" to affect the council and its performance. On 21 January 2012, hundreds of protesters, including many young men wounded from the civil war, stormed the NTC's headquarters in Benghazi, protesting the speed of reforms and lack of transparency from the interim government. When the head of the NTC, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, appeared to address the crowd, the protesters began throwing empty plastic bottles at him,