Jan 21, 2016 Mali recently called for the swift implementation of a peace agreement between Tuareg-led rebels and government, which is expected to prevent a resurgence of Islamist militant attacks in the country.
The two sides signed a United Nations brokered deal last year. However the Tuareg-led coalition has complained that the deal falls short of their demands.
Commenting on this, Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Ramtane Lamamra said:
“Speaking about the situation on the ground, we’re not exaggerating if we say that there is no more confrontation between different Malian parties, and that is the result of the good will of the Malian parties. What we see is a security incident in North Mali, which in recent months has been caused by the terrorist activity that still rampant in this region of the Malian republic. The efforts done by the Malian parties in order to observe a durable cessation of hostilities gave satisfactory results because today there are no confrontations between the Malian parties,”
However, political analysts insist that confidence is gradually eroding between the government and the rebels, which has effectively slowed down the peace initiatives.
Speaking in support of the peace agreement implementation, Malian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdoulaye Diop said:
“Today we have simplified things and we only have two groups. We have the group of peace: you, us, and our brothers of the armed front and all our friends. And we have what I call the enemies of peace represented by this terrorist group which is in operation. I think that the more we move on the agreement, the more they get afraid by this coming peace, which means the end of their criminal activities. I also think that we have to get better organised to dominate this threat better. But the solution is to move faster towards peace. We are conscious that, as a government, I am totally convinced that our brothers here around the table think the best answer is to move faster on the ground to realise this peace that we have all wanted to eventuate. So in my opinion, terrorism was recently the principal obstacle of the application of this agreement,”