Mali to resume talks with Tuareg separatists

Officials from the Keita administration in Mali government will meet with representatives of Tuareg separatist movement in Algiers on July 16, indicating progress in their stalled talks.

The meeting will be the first since clashes in the northern Tuareg stronghold town of Kidal in May.

The West African regional bloc ECOWAS, and Mali’s northern neighbor, Algeria are pressing both sides to hold talks that could end decades of Tuareg uprisings in Mali’s desert north.

A 2012 Tuareg separatist uprising led to a military coup in the capital, Bamako, and the occupation of the northern half of the country by better al-Qaeda-linked Islamist militants. The militants were later driven out.

Mali’s Tuareg separatist movement is demanding greater autonomy for northern Mali, which they term Azawad.

Source: Reuters