Mali’s junta has terminated a 2015 peace deal with Tuareg separatist rebels on Thursday in a move that could probably worsen the situation in the conflict-torn West African nation.
Tensions between the central authorities and the northern separatists have re-emerged since the military merged power in two coups that occurred in 2020 and 2021, teamed up with Russian military contractor, the Wagner Group, and kicked out French forces and U.N. peacekeepers from their country.
In a statement read on state television, the military authorities declared that it was no longer feasible to continue with the agreement due to other signatories not keeping to their commitments and “adverse acts” by chief mediator Algeria.
As a result, it said the so-called Algiers Accord, negotiated by the United Nations, was no longer workable.
Meanwhile, the CMA, an alliance of rebel groups formed by Mali’s semi-nomadic Tuareg people, has said that it was not surprised by the decision.
Mali has been plagued by violence since 2012 when Islamist militants took over an uprising by the Tuareg groups who bemoaned the government’s neglect and sought autonomy for the desert region they call Azawad.
The Tuaregs had signed the peace accord with the Bamako government in 2015, but the militant groups affiliated with al Qaeda and Islamic State have killed thousands of civilians in uprisings that have since spread to neighbouring countries, Burkina Faso and Niger Republic.
