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Mali: Keita administration and Tuareg Separatists negotiating northern devolution
Mali’s government and an alliance of Tuareg-led northern separatists have agreed to cease hostilities on Thursday to ease tensions during negotiations aimed at ending decades of uprisings.
The negotiations hosted by Algeria, will address issues of identity, a form of limited self-rule and more rights for the northern desert region the separatists call Azawad.
Regional governments are keen for a lasting peace in Mali, fearing Islamist militants may take advantage of the unrest in the north to gain a foothold, two years after regional forces intervened to drive them out.
According Mongi Hamdi – a diplomat observing the negotiations, this to be the last step to a final agreement. Negotiations in the past have been hampered by differences over how to devolve powers, and even the name of the north.
Thursday’s deal, which calls for an immediate halt to hostilities and provocations, was signed by the Tuareg separatist coalition and the Mali government, together with a pro-Bamako alliance.
Tuareg separatist leader Bilal Ag Acherif said the document should facilitate talks in “good faith” between the parties.
The Keita administration and the separatists agreed last year to a preliminary roadmap set out for negotiations. A U.N. initial document recognizes Mali’s unity and territorial integrity, but also the need for more rights and development for the north.
The Keita administration insists that it will not discuss northern autonomy, but will talk about devolving more local authority.
The Tuareg separatists are seeking a form of local government, including some form of federalism, with local parliament and security, saying Bamako neglected their region for decades.
Recently elected president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita is also under pressure over security and faces criticism from southerners unwilling to give concessions to the separatists who they blame for a crisis when al-Qaeda-linked Islamist militants swept the north.
Source: Reuters