OUAGADOUGOU, Oct 6 (Reuters) – Tuareg separatists said on
Saturday they were rejoining the peace process in northern Mali,
just over a week after they pulled out and accused Bamako of not
respecting the terms of a truce signed in June.
The three separatist groups, including the National Movement
for the Liberation of Azawad, or MNLA, rebels, made the
announcement after Malian authorities released 23 insurgents
last week to comply with the terms of the ceasefire signed in
Ouagadougou.
“We announce the end of the suspension of our
participation,” said the statement, also signed by the High
Council for the Unity of Azawad, or HCUA, and the Arab Movement
of Azawad, or MAA.
Azawad is the name the separatists give to northern Mali.
The three groups said they would return to participation in
a committee monitoring the implementation of the June agreement,
including the disarmament and return of combatants to barracks
and the release of prisoners.
MNLA Vice President Mahamadou Djeri Maiga, called, however,
for the postponement of legislative elections due on Nov. 24
because much of the population of northern Mali was still
displaced in the wake of the conflict.
The Tuareg uprising in 2012 led to a military coup in Bamako
and the occupation of the northern half of Mali by Islamist
militants during the subsequent chaos.
A French-led ground and air offensive drove out the
Islamists, allowing the Tuareg separatists to recapture their
traditional northern stronghold of Kidal.
The desert region has produced four rebellions since
independence from France in 1960. Its light-skinned Tuareg
people say successive black African governments in the capital
have excluded them from power.
The separatists’ suspension of participation in the peace
process on Sept. 26 was quickly followed by a grenade attack
that wounded two soldiers in Kidal and two days of clashes
between the military and MNLA rebels in the town.
June’s ceasefire enabled national elections to take place in
July and August. Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, a former prime
minister, was elected by a landslide with a pledge to reunify
the country and restore its pride.
The separatist movements, which met on Friday with the head
of the U.N. peacekeeping mission to Mali, Bert Koenders,
welcomed in their statement Keita’s recent efforts to ensure
implementation of the Ouagadougou accords.
(Reporting by Daniel Flynn; Editing by Peter Cooney)
