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Mali: New President Keita calls for more local autonomy, rejects Tuareg secession
Mali President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita
(Reuters) – Mali’s new president asked a national congress on Monday to draw up plans for increased regional autonomy, a year after northern separatists and their Islamist allies seized two-thirds of the country, prompting external intervention
Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said that the northern Tuareg separatist movement had legitimate concerns that should be addressed but insisted that demands for independence and subsequent secession were unacceptable.
“We must provide a definitive response to the frustrations that fuel the nationalist ambitions of our Tuareg brothers,” Keita said, inaugurating a three-day conference on decentralization. “But Mali is indivisible.”
The congress, a preliminary step before planned talks between the government and Tuareg separatist movement, will evaluate decentralization efforts undertaken since an earlier rebellion in 1990.
Under those reforms, Mali – which previously counted 19 administrative districts, known as communes – was divided into 703 communes. However, results were mixed.
Pro-government critics of the policy say decentralization further encouraged Tuareg ambitions of independence. Tuareg separatists say the reforms did not go far enough.
“After diagnosing the difficulties encountered, it’s up to you to form pertinent and apt recommendations to correct this dysfunction,” Keita told the conference.
The external military intervention launched in January succeeded in driving out al Qaeda-linked Islamist groups, but it did not target Tuareg separatist movment – the MNLA. Representatives from the MNLA are expected to attend the congress.
Keita was elected in August after the Tuareg separatists allowed the elections to take place in their northern stronghold of Kidal in exchange for promises of talks to address their demands.
The MNLA has backed away from demands for an independent Tuareg homeland but maintains calls for increased autonomy. Keita, who won office on promises to reunite the country, is under pressure to settle the Tuareg separatist issue.