BAMAKO, (Reuters) – Hundreds of Malians set up barricades and burned tyres in the streets of Bamako yesterday, shutting down the capital in protests against the government’s handling of a rebellion that has seized several northern towns.

The demonstrations came amid reports the Tuareg-led rebels, who are fighting for an independent north, had taken control of the northeastern town of Menaka.

Mali’s president replaced his defence minister last evening in an apparent concession to demonstrators, who accuse the government of failing to give its soldiers enough arms or equipment.

Defence Minister Sadio Gassama swapped posts with Natie Plea, who had previously held the lower-profile interior security ministry portfolio.

Dozens of people have been reported killed and thousands of civilians have fled their homes after the rebels launched a three-pronged assault in mid-January.

Anti-government demonstrations erupted after reports that soldiers fighting the rebels had run out of ammunition and dozens of troops had been executed by insurgents.

“We can’t go on seeing our relatives killed in the north as if there wasn’t any authority or any army in the country,” said one of the Bamako demonstrators, 30-year-old Oumar Traore. A Reuters reporter in Bamako said shops were shuttered early in the afternoon and smoke hung over parts of the city after tyres had been set on fire.

The protests come a day after witnesses said the wives and relatives of Malian soldiers serving in the north attacked government buildings and targeted at least one business run by a Tuareg in the town of Kati, just northwest of Bamako.