African securityMali, Tuareg rebels sign historic peace agreement
The Tuareg-led rebel coalition in northern Mali on Saturday signed a historic agreement with the government of Mali to end decades of conflict and war between the independence-seeking Tuareg and the central government in Bamako. Since 1960, when Mali gained its independence from France, the Tuareg launched four bloody wars in an effort to gain their independence, but were defeated each time. The pact signed Saturday between the Tuareg and the Mali government was brokered by Algeria – it is called the Algiers Accord – and it aims to bring stability to the country’s northern region.
The Tuareg-led rebel coalition in northern Mali on Saturday signed a historic agreement with the government of Mali to end decades of conflict and war between the independence-seeking Tuareg and the central government in Bamako.
Since 1960, when Mali gained its independence from France, the Tuareg launched four bloody wars in an effort to gain their independence, but were defeated each time.
In November 2011, following the fall of Col. Muammar Qaddafi in neighboring Libya, many Tuareg tribesmen who served in Qaddafi’s private militias, took their arms and moved back to their home areas in north Mali. There they joined a small Islamist movement called Ansar Dine, and begun, again, to agitate for Tuareg independence.
Their opportunity came in March 2012: on 22 March, a group of military officers in Bamako staged a military coup against the civilian government. In the confusion and chaos which followed, the combined forces of the Tuareg and Ansar Dine easily chased the Mali army out of north Mali, and in April 2013 declared the creation of the independent Republic of Azawad in north Mali.
Azawad was the size of France, but with a tiny population of only 1.6 million.
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Also read:
“French air strikes begin campaign to evict Islamists from Mali,” 14 January 2013
“Mali crisis deepens as Islamists tighten grip over breakaway Azawad,” 28 June 2012
Ben Frankel, “Short-sighted Tuareg leadership dooms independence quest,” 17 July 2012
“Tuaregs set Sahara aflame, proclaim new country,” 30 April 2012
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The break-away Azawad was initially ruled by an uneasy alliance of Tuareg tribesmen and an Islamists of Ansar Dine, but within weeks the Islamists took over, kicking the Tuareg soldiers out of Azawad, imposing a strict sharia law, destroying cultural sites – some recognized by the UN as world heritage sites — and driving a quarter of the population out of the break-away region.
In January 2013 the Islamists began to drive south toward the capital Bamako. France decided that enough was enough, and sent its air force and 4,000 soldiers to evict the Islamists from north Mali. The French expeditionary force was joined by a UN-approved regional force of 3,000, led by the army of neighboring Niger.
By March 2013 the war was over, with the Islamists either dead or dispersed, and later that spring Mali was reunited.
