UN confident Tuareg rebels will sign Mali peace deal

The United Nations peacekeeping chief in Mali has expressed confidence that rebels operating in the north will sign a peace deal aimed at restoring stability to the country.

Mongi Hamdi, who serves as the head of the United Nations' Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), said Thursday that he is confident that Tuareg rebels will sign a deal reached earlier in March in the Algerian capital, Algiers.

“We remain hopeful and confident that the Algiers process will be successful with the signing of the agreement on May 15 by all stakeholders in Mali because there is no other choice but to follow the logic of peace,” Hamdi said after a meeting with Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

The UN has already urged the rebels, officially known as Coordination for the Movements of Azawad (CMA), to recognize the historic opportunity for joining the agreement or face international sanctions. The rebels, however, have reportedly declared their refusal to sign the accord, saying that the document has not recognized the Azawad in northern Mali as a “geographic, political and juridical entity.”

Hamdi said that implementing the deal reached in Algiers would be only the beginning to “a long road to peace, security, reconciliation and development that assumes the continuation of dialogue.”

Under the deal, a raft of powers will be transferred from the capital Bamako to the country`s violence-hit north.

The agreement also suggests the establishment of elected local assemblies led by a directly-elected president, as well as “greater representation of the northern populations in national institutions.”

As of 2018, Mali’s government will allocate 30 percent of its revenues to local authorities, especially in the north, according to the document. 

Moreover, an internationally funded Northern Development Zone will be set up to raise the living standards of the northern population to the level of the rest of the country within 10-15 years.

Based on the draft, the militants will be integrated into the Malian army and will be stationed in the northern areas of the country.

Chaos broke out in Mali after President Amadou Toumani Toure was toppled in a military coup on March 22, 2012, which was described by coup leaders as a response to the government’s inability to contain the rebellion in the country’s north, where the rebels are fighting to gain autonomy.

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