{The United Nations is urging Tuareg-led rebels to sign a proposal on the future of northern Mali, calling it an important step towards peace in the violent region.}<\/p>\n
The deal, brokered by the world body and already signed by the southern Bamako government, aims to put a stop to decades of Tuareg uprisings.<\/p>\n
Following the latest Tuareg revolt in 2012, Islamist militants seized northern Mali, prompting a French-led military intervention. But while the Islamists were driven out, Mali remains deeply divided.<\/p>\n
Analysts and diplomats worry that a failure to reach a deal in the Algiers talks, now in their fifth round, could facilitate the return of the al-Qaeda-linked militants.<\/p>\n
“We encourage the armed groups of the Coordination to initial the agreement,” Francois Delattre, France’s UN envoy and current President of the UN Security Council, said in a statement late on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Delattre was referring to the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CPA), a coalition of rebel groups that is seeking greater autonomy for a region covering half of Mali.<\/p>\n
Fighting between armed groups, some of which are loyal to the government while others support Azawad, has complicated the negotiations in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
The Algiers document proposes more devolved powers for the north, a regional security force and a special development plan but leaves open the question of north Mali’s political status.<\/p>\n
The CPA says it needs “a reasonable timeframe” in which to consult with residents about the deal, without elaborating. A meeting to discuss the deal is planned in the Tuareg stronghold of Kidal on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Agencies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{The United Nations is urging Tuareg-led rebels to sign a proposal on the future of northern Mali, calling it an important step towards peace in the violent region.} The deal, brokered by the world body and already signed by the southern Bamako government, aims to put a stop to decades of Tuareg uprisings. Following the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000056409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-18819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","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":2000056409,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton18819.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton18819.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton18819.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton18819.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton18819.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton18819.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18819","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000056409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18819"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=18819"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=18819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}