The Malian junta on Monday (August 28th) called on the armed groups in the north, signatories to an ailing peace agreement, to renew dialogue with it as fears of a resumption of hostilities grow in the wake of the withdrawal of the Malian mission. ‘UN. When this call was made, the spokesperson for an organization uniting these groups accused Malian army planes of having bombed positions of the Coordination of Movements of Azawad (CMA), an alliance dominated Tuareg signatory to the agreement, in the Kidal region, without doing any damage.
Tensions have been growing for months between the central state and the groups in question. They were accentuated with the start of the withdrawal of the UN mission deployed in Mali since 2013 and initially pushed by the authorities in Bamako. Armed groups are opposed to the mission camps being transferred to the Malian army, amid rivalry for control of territory.
These tensions culminated with the transfer of the UN camp from Ber in mid-August, which gave rise to fighting between soldiers and jihadists, but also to hostile acts between the army and the CMA. The situation raises fears for the future of the 2015 agreement considered essential for the stabilization of the Sahelian country caught in the turmoil since the outbreak of separatist and Salafist insurgencies in the north in 2012.
“Return to the negotiating table”
The so-called Algiers agreement was signed by the CMA, by pro-government armed groups and by the government. The jihadists, meanwhile, continue to fight the state under the banner of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State organization. Concerns for the future of the agreement were widely expressed Monday during a session of the UN Security Council.
The head of the United Nations mission in Mali, El-Ghassim Wane, noted the “paralysis of the monitoring structures” of the agreement. US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said she was “alarmed” by the clashes that took place in Ber and by “the resumption of hostilities in the north”. “If war breaks out, it will wreak unspeakable, unthinkable devastation on Malians,” she said. Several countries have called for a resumption of dialogue.
In a press release issued simultaneously, the Minister of Reconciliation, in charge of the peace agreement, Colonel Major Ismaël Wagué, said he “invited” the signatory movements to “return to the negotiating table”. “The government remains committed to the agreement,” as well as to the ceasefire reached the previous year, he said.
But, at the same time, Mohamed El Maouloud Ramadane, spokesperson for a structure bringing together the signatory groups since 2021, reported to AFP the dropping of a few bombs on former rebel positions in Anefis, without causing damage. . The Malian army later posted messages on social media stating that it “targeted a group of armed terrorist groups [GAT] in the Anéfis sector” and “neutralized” several fighters. At least twice this year, Malian army aircraft have flown over Kidal, a Tuareg stronghold.
“Intensive Rearmament”
In an August report seen by AFP, Security Council-mandated experts expressed concern over such acts and said they had persistent information about “intensive rearmament” by former rebels. They note that the implementation of the 2015 agreement, which provides for more local autonomy and the integration of combatants into a so-called “reconstituted army”, is at a “stalemate”. This weakens the signatories with local populations and plays into the hands of jihadists, they say.
“Many armed groups have seen their fighters change sides to join terrorist armed groups or trafficking networks,” they report. The groups affiliated with the Islamic State organization have practically doubled in less than a year the area they control and those affiliated with Al-Qaeda are positioning themselves “as the only actor capable of protecting the populations against the Islamic State”, they say.
This new situation offers “terrorist groups the opportunity to reproduce the scenario” of 2012, with the capture of the major cities of the north, they write. Before the Security Council, the Malian representative Issa Konfourou assured that the army had not violated the Algiers agreement and that the “determination” of the State to take control of the camps left by the UN ” certainly does not constitute an act of belligerence”. He denounced “collusions observed recently between armed groups and terrorist organizations”.
