In an exclusive interview with France 24 and RFI this Monday, February 10, 2020, the Malian head of state, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta (IBK), confirms for the first time the opening of a dialogue with the jihadist leaders Iyad Ag- Ghaly and Amadou Koufa, in an attempt to come to grips with terrorism.
"Talking with the jihadists and fighting terrorism is not contradictory. I have the duty and the mission today to create all possible spaces and to do everything so that, by one way or another, we can achieve to some possible appeasement, "he said. "It is time that certain avenues are explored".
If it assures that this attempt at discussion is necessary, IBK does not say however "not naive" as for the intentions of these interlocutors. "We are not big candid people, but we are not obtuse people either," he said.
"The Malian army in Kidal on Friday"
The Malian president also confirms that the Malian army is "on the move" towards the city of Kidal, in the north, which has escaped its control since 2014, saying that it "should in principle be there this Friday".
According to the UN mission in the country (Minusma), the return of the Malian army to the symbolic city of Kidal, controlled by former Tuareg separatist rebels, would be a "decisive step in the implementation" of the Algiers peace agreement of 2015. The application of this agreement is considered to be a key factor in ending the crisis in Mali, which has been confronted since 2012 with separatist, Salafist and jihadist insurgencies and inter-community violence which has caused thousands dead and hundreds of thousands displaced.
"Without Serval, what would we be today?"
Finally, the Malian president described the current situation in the Sahel as "very worrying" and denounced the arrival of "elements" from Syria and Iraq, via Libya. He says, as such, that the meeting of the G5 Sahel in Pau organized on January 13, 2020 around Emmanuel Macron was "useful".
The Malian president also denies any "duplicity" vis-à-vis France, and condemns those who demonstrate against the French presence, claiming that they are "anti-Malians". "Without Serval, what would we be today?" He wonders.
>> To read: "Serval, Barkhane, Blue Helmets ... military operations in Mali since 2013"
The head of state is also optimistic about the maintenance of a US military presence in the region despite indications of Washington's withdrawal, stressing that this presence was more necessary in the face of increasingly seasoned and murderous groups.
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