Mali Junta Warns Key Peace Deal Under Threat

Dakar, March 1 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Mar, 2023 ) :Mali's junta has issued a strongly worded warning to international partners about threats to a major peace deal with armed groups in the country's north, fuelling fears of renewed hostilities.

Colonel Major Ismael Wague, one of the junta's strongmen, recently wrote in strong terms to Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra, whose country is leading international mediation efforts to uphold the so-called Algiers agreement, signed in 2015.

In the letter, obtained by AFP Wednesday, Wague accused one of the deal's signatories, the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) -- an alliance of Tuareg-dominated independence and autonomist groups -- of repeatedly violating the agreement.

He also questioned the credibility of international mediators supporting the agreement's implementation, which include the United Nations, African organisations and foreign partners under the leadership of Algeria.

"The behaviour of certain movements is an obstacle to peace," he said.

Wague accused the CMA of "increasingly obvious collusion with terrorist groups".

Large swathes of northern Mali are under the CMA's control, including the strategic town of Kidal.

The situation is a major irritant for the junta, which has made sovereignty its mantra since seizing power by force in 2020.