Armed groups in Mali say they are preparing for war
Tensions are rising by the day in northern Mali, where several armed groups want to defend themselves militarily against the military regime in power in Bamako.
In a statement on Sunday, the Permanent Strategic Framework accused the military regime of repeated violations of the 2014 ceasefire and the 2015 peace accord.
AFP
Armed groups that signed a major peace deal in northern Mali said on Sunday they were preparing to defend themselves militarily against the military regime in power in Bamako, raising fears of a resumption of open hostilities. The Permanent Strategic Framework (CSP), which unites these groups, called in a press release for civilians to move away from installations and locations of military operations.
Further north, the governorate of Gao region, which has seen an increase in attacks and clashes in recent weeks, has instituted a 30-day night curfew from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. until October 9. Only security force vehicles are exempted, the text consulted by AFP said.
These developments come against a backdrop of rising tension in this part of Mali, where numerous armed actors are vying for control of the territory: the national army, mainly Tuareg groups, jihadist groups, not to mention bandits.
The plane was shot down
The tensions raise fears more than ever of a re-opening of the frontline between the Malian army and the majority Tuareg groups, who have fought the central government since 2012 before agreeing to a ceasefire in 2014 and signing it in 2015.
The jihadists, who initially fought Tuareg and Arab rebels, were not affected by the Algiers accord and have since expanded their operations into the center of the country and into Burkina. Banner of Al-Qaeda or Islamic State.
The Coalition of Azawad Movements (CMA), which is part of the CSP, claimed to have shot down a Malian military plane after it bombed its positions in Gao region on Saturday evening. The downing of a Malian military plane by armed groups in the north is unprecedented in recent years.
64 people died on Thursday
The Air Force Chief of Staff, General Alo Boi Tiara, assured state television on Sunday evening that the plane, on an unspecified mission, “encountered some technical problems which forced the crew to abandon, that is, to evacuate. The crashed plane.
The crew was “safely rescued,” he said. The Kao and Timbuktu regions have been the scene of repeated attacks by jihadists for weeks, but there have also been clashes involving the Malian army and groups that signed the Algiers accord.
A twin attack by jihadists between Timbuktu and Khao on Thursday killed 64 civilians and soldiers, according to government reports. But different sources indicate that the human losses were actually much heavier. These events coincide with the continued dysfunction of the UN mission, which has been deployed in Mali since 2013 and ousted by the military junta in 2023.
“sack”
In a statement on Sunday, the Permanent Strategic Framework blamed repeated violations of the 2014 ceasefire and the 2015 peace accord. It provides a strategy for breaking the ceasefire to the military regime in power from 2020. He declares that he will henceforth take all defensive measures against the regime’s forces in the entire region of Azawad, the northern part of Mali’s former Tuareg independence claim.
“The military junta is using the decision to withdraw the UN mission as a pretext” to reoccupy areas that were supposed to return to the control of armed groups under the 2014 and 2015 arrangement, the CSP alleges. The junta has made restoring sovereignty one of its mantras, a goal at odds with various armed groups that control large swaths of territory.
AFP
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