Mali relies on Russian help and breaks the peace agreement with separatist rebels
Mali 's military rulers have announced the cancellation of a 2015 peace deal with separatist rebels after months of fighting in the West African nation.
Military authorities said late Thursday that the so-called Algiers Agreement had ended with “immediate effect” due to failure of other signatories to live up to their commitments and hostility from the lead mediator, Algeria.
In a speech broadcast on state television, military government spokesman Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga said Algiers had carried out an "increasing number of hostile acts, cases of hostility and interference in the internal affairs of Mali."
Algeria had led the efforts to restore peace in Mali after the signing of the so-called Algiers Agreement between Bamako and armed groups composed mainly of the semi-nomadic Tuareg ethnic group. The agreement had led to a division of the country into two parts, with the northern part in the hands of the rebels:
Last month, Mali summoned the Algerian ambassador for "interference" and "hostile acts" linked to claims the envoy held talks with Tuareg separatists without involving Bamako.
Rebel alliance group CMA said it was not surprised by the decision.
“We have been expecting this since they brought Wagner, kicked out MINUSMA [the UN peacekeeping group] and started hostilities by attacking our positions on the ground,” said CMA spokesman Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, quoted by the agency Reuters press .
“We knew the goal was to end the deal.”
The Algiers agreement began to fray in August as fighting between separatists and government troops intensified following the gradual winding down of the decade-long United Nations peacekeeping mission in the country.
In June, Mali's military government, which took power in 2020, called for the departure of the UN mission despite frequent attacks by armed groups in the Sahel region.
After the coup, Mali's military leaders severed ties with former colonial power France and sought closer relations with Russia and the private military Wagner Group.
The Wagner Group began to replace the UN and Western presence in general in 2022, but since August 2023 there have been signs of increased engagement of the Russian company on the territory of the African state.
Mali has been plagued by violence since 2012, when armed Islamist groups took over a Tuareg uprising driven by accusations of government negligence and demands for greater autonomy.
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The article Mali relies on Russian help and breaks the peace agreement with separatist rebels comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/il-mali-confida-sullaiuto-russo-e-rompe-laccordo-di-pace-con-i-ribelli-separatisti/ on Sun, 28 Jan 2024 13:54:18 +0000.