Bamako, Feb 7, 2020 – Malian troops are due to redeploy before February 10 to the northern town of Kidal, long a symbol of the government’s lack of control over the strife-torn north. Rebels captured much of the West African state’s north in 2012, triggering a war which jihadists have since overtaken and spread to central Mali, neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger. Despite years of conflict and the presence of foreign troops, large swathes
of the north remain outside of state control.
Kidal fell to ethnic Touareg rebels in 2012. They signed a peace accord with the government in Bamako in 2015, however, which remains shaky. Soldiers returning to Kidal is considered a key component of the implementing that agreement. The 2015 peace plan is considered one of Mali’s few escape routes from its cycle of violence, which has killed thousands of soldiers and civilians to date.
A committee bringing together the army, former rebels, the United Nations and several foreign actors released a statement on Friday declaring that troops would depart “at the latest on February 10”. Malian soldiers will arrive in Kidal several days after setting off from the northern town of Gao about 200 kilometres south.
The units returning to the city are so-called “reconstituted” ones, comprised of regulars and former rebels who joined the military after the 2015 peace accord. Other such units are expected to deploy in northern Malian cities such as Menaka, Gao and Timbuktu, after the soldiers reach Kidal.
By AFP
