Mali’s military rulers say they have ended “with immediate effect” a key 2015 peace deal with northern separatists groups, following months of hostilities between rebels and the army.
Key points:
- The military junta blamed the the development on a “change in posture of certain signatory groups”
- The UN-brokered deal is considered essential in maintaining stability in Mali
- The deal had effectively begun to unravel last year, as fighting between rebels and government troops broke out
The military junta blamed the “change in posture of certain signatory groups” for the stop, alongside “acts of hostility” by the lead mediator Algeria, government spokesperson Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga said.
Col Maiga said Mali’s government “notes the complete impossibility of the deal … and in consequence announces its end, with immediate effect”.
The televised address ends a UN-brokered deal considered essential in maintaining stability in a country rocked by jihadist violence since 2012.
The deal had effectively begun to unravel last year, when fighting between rebels and Mali government troops broke out in August after eight years of calm, as both sides scrambled to fill the vacuum left by the withdrawal of United Nations peacekeepers.
Mali’s military leaders, who seized power in a 2020 coup, ordered the departure of the UN mission last June, accusing the troops of “fuelling community tensions”.
It also broke off relations with former colonial power France, which had been helping to fight jihadist insurgents in the north.
Since then, the landlocked nation has turned to Russia for political and military assistance.
The separatist rebels, grouped under the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA), had already accused the junta in 2022 of abandoning the pact.
The peace deal had called for the integration of ex-rebels into the Malian defence forces.
AFP