Three armed groups merge in northern Mali

Three armed groups from northern Mali who fought the central state in the past merged on Wednesday February 8, in a period of tension with Bamako.

The three movements hitherto grouped in the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA), an alliance of predominantly Tuareg groups with an Arab component, signed a merger document during a ceremony in Kidal, a northern city under their control.

This is an independence movement, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), and two other separatists, the High Council for the Unity of Azawad (HCUA) and the Arab Movement of Azawad (MAA).

They fought the Malian state before signing the so-called Algiers peace agreement with it in 2015. The jihadists with whom they had started the insurrection in 2012 continue to fight and have spread to the center and the Niger and neighboring Burkina Faso.

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“A single political and military entity”

The three armed groups have "

", according to a one-page statement received by AFP and authenticated by the signatories.

The signatories invoke the "

".

In December, the CMA suspended its participation in the mechanisms for implementing the Algiers peace agreement, as did almost all of the signatory armed groups, citing the "

" of the junta in power.

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At the end of January, she also announced that she was withdrawing from the commission responsible for finalizing the draft new Constitution, a key element of the vast project invoked by the junta to maintain itself until 2024 at the head of this country plunged into a deep crisis.

The CMA denounces the "

" of the Algiers peace agreement and calls on its international guarantors to "

" between its parties.

It requires a meeting in a neutral place with the international mediation to discuss its viability.

The agreement signed by these ex-rebels in 2015 with pro-government armed groups and the Malian state provides for more local autonomy and the integration of combatants into a so-called "

" army, under the authority of the State.

But its application remains fragmentary.

Mali has been plagued since 2012 by the spread of jihadism and a serious security, political and humanitarian crisis.

The colonels who seized power in Mali by force in 2020 pushed for the rupture of the military alliance with France and its partners in 2022, and turned to Russia.