Back in Kidal, the Malian army wants to embody the restoration of state authority

After six years of absence, the Malian army entered the city of Kidal, Thursday, February 13. Leaving Gao on Monday, a contingent of 240 Malian soldiers arrived in the northern city of Mali, escorted by UN peacekeepers.

The information was confirmed by Minusma, the UN mission in Mali. Involved in the operation, she published photos of a column of vehicles in a bare and dusty landscape at the entrance of Kidal according to her, after three days of track leaving from Gao, about 200 km south.

#Mali Arrival of the reconstituted army in #Kidal: a major step forward in the implementation of the Peace Agreement. The soldiers of the reconstituted army have just joined the town of Kidal and their camp where their installation begins. pic.twitter.com/wjfOvU0aP7

This return marks a symbolic victory for the Malian state, which is working to restore its authority in the North, and an encouraging step in the implementation of the peace agreement concluded between Bamako and the Tuareg rebels in 2015, which provides for greater autonomy for the Tuaregs in return for the return of Malian forces to the region.

He is also supposed to give the example of reconciliation in the country at war since 2012. The units that entered Kidal, known as "reconstituted", include former rebels integrated into the Malian army in accordance with the peace agreement of Algiers of 2015.

Multiple insurrections

Mali has been confronted since 2012 with separatist, Salafist and jihadist insurgencies and inter-community violence which has left thousands of people dead and hundreds of thousands displaced. Departing from the north of the country, the violence spread to the center and to neighboring countries, Burkina Faso and Niger.

Kidal, 1,500 km northeast of Bamako, is a Tuareg cultural stronghold and the historic cradle of the most influential clans. It is also a region that has been marginalized since Malian independence and where the various Tuareg rebellions were born.

The Malian army had not recovered since May 2014. A visit by the Prime Minister at the time, Moussa Mara, had given rise to fighting which had resulted in his heavy defeat against the rebels.

Coordination of Azawad movements

Kidal has since been controlled by the Coordination of Movements of Azawad (CMA), a Tuareg-dominated alliance of former rebel armed groups. The CMA is a signatory to the 2015 Algiers agreement with an alliance of pro-government armed groups, called the Platform.

The conditions for the deployment of the "reconstituted" Malian forces in Kidal were the subject of months of negotiations between the CMA, the Malian State and its foreign partners.

The situation in Kidal is also a source of strong tension for Mali's neighbors who suspect or denounce there alliances between separatists and jihadists. For them, Kidal served as a rear base for jihadist attacks.

Kidal also gives rise to accusations against the responsibility imputed to France, because of its presumed links with the Tuareg rebels, in the particular situation of the city. These accusations appear in speeches hostile to the French presence, more and more audible in recent months.

With AFP and Reuters

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