Mali government, Tuareg agree to end hostilities

ALGIERS – Mali’s government and Tuareg rebels agreed Monday on an end to their conflict after talks in Algiers, mediator Algeria’s ambassador to Mali said. “The two delegations representing the Malian government and the May 23 Democratic Alliance for Change have reached an agreement on the cessation of hostilities,” Abdelkrim Ghrieb said.

The talks in Algiers were called after a recent flare-up in violence that threatened a July 2006 peace accord between the Malian government and Tuareg rebels in the north of the country that was also brokered by Algeria. The Tuareg are a nomadic people who have roamed the southern Sahara for centuries. They have staged uprisings in recent years in both Mali and neighbouring Niger claiming autonomy for their traditional homeland.

Under the terms of the 2006 peace agreements, the Tuaregs were to give up their claim for regional autonomy, while the Malian government was to speed up development in the northern regions. Ghrieb’s announcement came despite Saturday’s abduction of three gendarmes from a police base at Tessalit in northern Mali by Tuareg rebels from a group calling itself the United Forces of Azawad, a traditional name for the region.