Mali junta ends 2015 peace deal with rebels

By James Tasamba

KIGALI, Rwanda (AA) – Mali's military government announced Thursday it has “ended with immediate effect” a peace deal with northern separatist rebels which was brokered by the UN in 2015.

A statement read on state television by the government spokesman, Col. Abdoulaye Maiga, said Mali decided to end the deal because of “the change in posture of some signatory groups.”

It also accused the lead mediator Algeria “of acts of hostility.”

The government “notes the complete impossibility of the deal and in consequence announces its end, with immediate effect,” the statement said.

Mali has been fighting an insurgency linked to al-Qaeda and Daesh/ISIS since 2012 when unrest erupted in the north of the country.

In 2015, the government signed a peace agreement with several rebel groups in a bid to curb the violence.

The deal, among other things, saw rebel militias start cooperating with the army and provided for decentralizing governance in the country of about 22 million people.

But last August, fighting erupted between the separatists and the Mali government troops after eight years of lull, as the UN peacekeepers began to withdraw from the West African country.

There were also global and regional concerns over developments in Mali as a military coup overthrew the civilian government in 2020.

In July 2022, the separatist rebels, grouped under the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA), accused the transitional government of abandoning the pact.