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REUTERS Fighters from the Tuareg separatist rebel group MNLA drive in the desert near Tabankort. Mali's government and Tuareg-led rebels held UN-sponsored peace talks in Algeria earlier this year in pursuit of an accord to end uprisings by separatists seeking more self-rule for the northern region they call Azawad. File photo: Souleymane Ag AnaraAlgiers - Mali's government will do all it can to meet its commitments under a peace agreement with Tuareg-led rebels, its President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said in Algiers on Monday.
“We will do everything to keep our commitments in the document signed in Algiers on March 1 with our brothers,” Boubacar Keita said after being received by his Algerian counterpart, Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
The Algiers Agreement, hammered out over eight months of tough negotiations, aims to bring a lasting peace to a sprawling area of northern desert that the rebels refer to as “Azawad”.
It has been signed by Mali's government and smaller armed groups but Tuareg-led rebels under the banner of the Co-ordination for the Movements of Azawad (CMA) have sought more talks.
The rebels have been calling for “recognition and compensation by the state of Mali” and “recognition of Azawad as a political, legal and territorial entity”.
But Boubacar Keita, who began a three-day visit to Algiers on Monday, described the agreement already in place as “a new beginning”.
“It's an agreement that opens up new avenues for the country, for its reconstruction and for Mali in peace, soothed and reconciled,” said the Malian leader.
The intention of the accord, he said, was to “rebuild and develop the country for each party to feel proud of belonging to” Mali.
Boubacar Keita said he was “optimistic” the rebels would sign up to the peace agreement.
Divided into rival armed factions, plagued by drug trafficking and at the mercy of jihadism, Mali's desert north has struggled for stability since the West African nation gained independence in 1960.
AFP
