Mali government signs peace deal, Tuareg rebels delay

ALGIERS // The Malian government signed a peace agreement with some northern armed groups on Sunday in Algiers but the main Tuareg rebel alliance asked for more time to consult its grassroots.

The deal, hammered out in eight months of tough negotiations in neighbouring Algeria, provides for the transfer of a raft of powers from Bamako to the north, an area the rebels refer to as “Azawad”.

Militants linked to Al Qaeda seized control of northern Mali for more than nine months until a French-led military intervention in 2013 that partly drove them from the region.

Militant groups were not invited to the Algiers talks.

The Tuareg rebel alliance that includes the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad said it had asked for a “reasonable delay” for consultations before signing.

“An agreement that has not been shared with the people of the region has little chance of being implemented on the ground,” an alliance representative said.

But Algerian foreign minister Ramtane Lamamra expressed optimism that the rebel alliance would sign soon.

“The agreement will be signed by all the groups,” he said. The delay sought by the Tuareg alliance was merely an indication of their “desire to secure the maximum support for the deal”.

Mali’s former colonial ruler France welcomed the agreement.

“The agreement finalised this morning in Algiers is an excellent development,” foreign minister Laurent Fabius said.

“I salute the decision of the president and the Malian government to sign it and call on all groups in the north to do so without delay,” he said.

A spokesman for the groups that did sign hailed the agreement as “an essential document for restoring peace and reconciliation”.

“We have undertaken to respect the spirit and the letter of it,” Harouna Toureh said.

Ethnic divisions run deep in the northern desert, the cradle of a Tuareg separatist movement which has spawned several rebellions since the 1960s.

The agreement calls for “reconstruction of the country’s national unity” in a manner that “respects its territorial integrity and takes account of its ethnic and cultural diversity”.

In deference to the concerns of the Malian government about separatism, it does not use the word autonomy in setting out the powers the region will enjoy.

Political scientist Rachid Tlemcani said the accord would be “a great victory of Algerian diplomacy” if it succeeds, but remained “sceptical” that it would resolve the root causes of the conflict.

* Agence France-Presse