Panafrican News Agency

CSA president says Azawad movement violated Algiers peace deal for Mali

Bamako, Mali (PANA) - The Chairman of the monitoring committee on the agreement for peace and reconciliation in Mali (CSA), the Algerian Ahmed Boutache, has strongly condemned recent measures taken by the coordination of the Azawad movements (CMA), one of the signatories to the Algiers Peace and Reconciliation Agreement, aimed at regulating a number of areas for public life in the city of Kidal, northern Mali.

PANA learned from official sources that in a decision taken in January, the president of the CMA set up a security police operation, called "Acharouchou", (rehabilitation).

The police operation, scheduled to last 15 days, will man and secure the roads, control vehicles, the movement of weapons and motorcyclists.

It will also prohibits the sale and consumption of alcohol, the obligation for pharmacies to register, the obligation for any foreigner to have an identity document from his country of origin and to have a tutor in Kidal.

The CMA's decision states that offenders will be "brought to ALQADA justice for all intents and purposes."

For the CSA president, Ahmed Boutache, this decision constitutes, from the point of view of the CSA and that of the mediation, a flagrant violation of the agreement and an infringement of the sovereign prerogatives of the Malian government.

"These are laws that first fall under the Kidal region. We therefore consider that these regulatory measures, unduly taken by the CMA president, are null and void."

The peace and reconciliation agreement, resulting from the Algiers process, was signed in May-June 2015 by the Malian government, the northern armed groups and the international community with a view to achieving a definitive peace in Mali, following a series of Tuareg rebellions in northern Mali exacerbated in recent years by jihadist attacks, especially in the north and the center of the country.

-0- PANA GT/IS/SOC/BBA/VAO 19Feb2019