The meeting began on Wednesday, March 16, and ended on Thursday, March 17, in Gao, in the north. The Malian Minister for National Reconciliation and the leaders of the armed groups would complete the agreement in principle signed in Rome in order to jointly resume implementation of the peace agreement. But the meeting ended in failure.
Malian’s Minister for National Reconciliation, Colonel Ismaël Wagué, wanted to join the CSP and take over its presidency. The CSP (Permanent Strategic Framework) consists of all signing armed groups of the peace agreement – the former separatist rebels in the CMA as well as the Malian prostitute groups in the platform – would thus have become CSPR (Permanent Strategic Framework for Reconciliation).
But if these armed groups are for state support, they did not accept that the Malian minister immediately wanted to take over the rotating presidency of the cadre. After Bilal Ag Acherif, Secretary General of the MNLA, it is therefore Fahad Ag Almahmoud, Secretary General of Gatia, who officially became President of the Framework for six months. This was indicated by the leaders of the armed groups contacted by RFI.
A dialogue that continues For its part, the Malian Ministry of National Reconciliation, which acknowledges the lack of agreement, declares that it leaves “more time for actors to reach a consensus on this issue”. On both sides, we assure that dialogue is not broken, a way of noting the failure of this meeting by showing optimism.
The Monitoring Committee for the Peace Agreement has not met since October 2021, and hostile statements have multiplied, on both sides, in recent weeks.
A next meeting should take place between Minister Wagué and the armed groups, whose dates have not yet been set.
