Mali’s main Coalition of Tuareg separatist rebels has signed a landmark peace deal with the government. The ceremony in Mali’s capital Bamako was the culmination of almost a year of UN sponsored peace talks hosted by Algeria.
The Algiers Accord aims to bring stability to the country’s vast northern desert, cradle of several Tuareg uprisings since the 1960s and a sanctuary for Islamist fighters linked to Al- Qaeda. Ramtane Lamamra, the foreign minister of Algeria, which has been leading international efforts to mediate the peace talks, is in the Malian capital to sign the deal, along with scores of rebels. The peace accord, hammered out over months under the auspices of the UN, calls for the creation of elected regional assemblies but stop short of autonomy or federalism for northern Mali.
Cheers broke out as Sidi Brahim Ould Sidati, a member of the Arab Movement of Azawad, put his name to the document on behalf of the CMA in a televised ceremony at a packed conference hall in the capital Bamako.
“Trust me — we will make sure that no one is disappointed. We will build a brotherly Mali together,” President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita told an audience of northern community leaders and international sponsors. “Today is a great day for all us children of Mali.”
