The Sunday Mail
Mali’S Tuareg-led rebel alliance yesterday prepared to sign a landmark deal to end years of unrest in a nation riven by ethnic divisions and in the grip of a jihadist insurgency.
The Algiers Accord aims to bring stability to the country’s vast northern desert, cradle of several Tuareg uprisings since the 1960s and a sanctuary for Islamist fighters linked to Al-Qaeda.
The document was signed in May by the government and loyalist militias, but the Co-ordination of Azawad Movements, a coalition of rebel groups, had been holding out until amendments were agreed two weeks ago.
Ramtane Lamamra, the foreign minister for Algeria, who has been leading international efforts to mediate the peace talks, is expected in the Malian capital to sign the deal, along with scores of rebels.
The peace accord, hammered out over months under the auspices of the United Nations, calls for the creation of elected regional assemblies, but not autonomy or federalism, in deference to government concerns of separatism.
The Malian government and several armed groups signed the document on May 15 in Bamako, in a ceremony spurned by the CMA.
The rebels finally agreed to commit on June 5 after winning concessions including a stipulation that its fighters be included in a security force for the north, and that residents of the north be represented in government institutions.
Mali was shaken by a coup in 2012 that cleared the way for Tuareg separatists to seize towns and cities of the north.
Al-Qaeda-linked militants then overpowered the Tuareg, taking control of northern Mali for nearly 10 months until they were ousted in a French-led military offensive.
The country remains deeply divided, with the Tuareg and Arab populations of the north accusing sub-Saharan ethnic groups in the more prosperous south of marginalising them. — AFP.
