BAMAKO (Reuters) – Mali’s junta issued a decree on Friday to establish a committee to organize peace and national reconciliation talks, a day after ending a 2015 deal with Tuareg separatist rebels and accused the mediator, Algeria, of interference.
The decision to end the so-called Algiers agreement threatens to further destabilize the conflict-ridden West African country.
Algeria, which shares a border with Mali more than 1,300 km long, said the decision could endanger the entire region.
With the apparent aim of establishing a new internal peace process, the junta’s decree outlines the structure of a committee and the steps it should take to prepare for the talks. The text does not set a timetable or specify which groups would be included in the dialogue.
Tuareg rebels on Friday acknowledged the end of the 2015 peace deal, but did not mention the new initiative.
Mali, located on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, has been plagued by violence since 2012, when Islamist militants hijacked an uprising by Tuareg groups complaining of government neglect and seeking autonomy for the desert region which they call Azawad.
The Tuaregs signed the peace deal with the Bamako government in 2015, but militant groups linked to Al-Qaeda and Islamic State later killed thousands of civilians in insurgencies that spread to Burkina Faso and neighboring Niger.
The Tuareg peace deal has come under strain since the military consolidated power through two coups in 2020 and 2021, joined forces with the Russian military group Wagner and drove out French forces and the mission UN peacekeeping.
Fighting between the Malian army and separatists has intensified again since last August, as they compete for positions during the gradual withdrawal of UN forces.
(Reporting by Fadimata Kontao and Tiemoko Diallo; written by Alessandra Prentice and Portia Crowe, French version Benjamin Mallet)
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