{{Mali’s president asked a national congress on Monday to draw up plans for increased regional autonomy, a year after northern separatists and their Islamist allies seized two-thirds of the country, prompting France to send in troops.}}<\/p>\n
Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said northern Tuaregs had legitimate concerns that should be addressed but insisted that demands for independence were unacceptable.<\/p>\n
“We must provide a definitive response to the frustrations that fuel the nationalist ambitions of our Tuareg brothers,” Keita said, inaugurating a three-day conference on decentralization. “But Mali is indivisible.”<\/p>\n
The congress, a preliminary step before planned talks between the government and Tuareg separatist groups, will evaluate decentralization efforts undertaken since an earlier rebellion in 1990.<\/p>\n
Under those reforms, Mali – which previously counted 19 administrative districts, known as communes – was divided into 703 communes. However, results were mixed.<\/p>\n
Pro-government critics of the policy say decentralization further encouraged Tuareg ambitions of independence. Tuareg groups say the reforms did not go far enough.<\/p>\n
“After diagnosing the difficulties encountered, it’s up to you to form pertinent and apt recommendations to correct this dysfunction,” Keita told the conference.<\/p>\n
The French-led offensive launched in January succeeded in driving out al Qaeda-linked Islamist groups, but it did not target Tuareg MNLA rebels. Representatives from the MNLA were expected to attend the congress but were not present on the opening day.<\/p>\n
Keita was elected in August after the MNLA allowed the elections to take place in its northern stronghold of Kidal in exchange for promises of talks to address its demands.<\/p>\n
The MNLA has backed away from demands for an independent Tuareg homeland but maintains calls for increased autonomy.<\/p>\n
Keita, who won office on promises to reunite the country, is under pressure to settle the Tuareg issue, but concessions to the rebels will be unpopular in the heavily populated south.<\/p>\n
The fragile peace between the government and rebels has frayed since the elections. MNLA fighters clashed with government forces in Kidal late last month.<\/p>\n
wirestory<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{{Mali’s president asked a national congress on Monday to draw up plans for increased regional autonomy, a year after northern separatists and their Islamist allies seized two-thirds of the country, prompting France to send in troops.}} Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said northern Tuaregs had legitimate concerns that should be addressed but insisted that demands for independence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2000048939,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[99],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-11085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000048939,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton11085.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton11085.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton11085.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton11085.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton11085.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton11085.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000048939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11085"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=11085"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=11085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}