Mali, Algeria to revive peace agreement with northern Tuareg rebels

By James Tasamba

KIGALI, Rwanda (AA) – Mali and Algeria are ready to revive a 2015 faltering peace deal between Mali’s government and northern Malian Tuareg rebels, an official said Thursday, against a backdrop of the deteriorating security situation.

“We examined very precisely what is needed to ensure the effective and productive relaunch of a political process protected from short-term turbulence,” Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf said in a video posted by Mali’s presidency after talks with junta leader Colonel Assimi Goita in the capital Bamako.

The 2015 agreement signed in Algeria’s capital of Algiers was aimed at easing tensions after violence broke out in northern Mali in 2012, when ethnic Tuaregs launched an insurgency against the central government, leading to the occupation of the region by the rebels.

The agreement between the authorities and two separate armed group coalitions spelled out disarmament and subsequent integration of the former rebels into the national army and offered more autonomy to the northern region.

However, in December Mali announced it was suspending its participation in the implementation of the agreement.

The government stance prompted the former rebel leaders to visit Algeria in February for talks on how to end the impasse, arguing that there was “no way to build a common future with Bamako,” under the circumstances.

Mali’s Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla Maiga said Algeria is to play its role as a “stabilizer” in the process of implementing the agreement for peace and reconciliation.

“Algeria is a brotherly country, a neighbor and a reliable ally in the fight for the unity and independence of African states like Mali,” he told reporters.

Since 2012, the West African country has been battling growing violence orchestrated by militants in northern and central regions, targeting both soldiers and civilians.

There has been an increase in terrorist attacks in the central regions of the country this year, according to a UN report released earlier this month.

At least 206 people were killed and 80 others injured between January and March 2023, the report presented to the UN Security Council showed.