The Mali government signed a ceasefire deal with three rebel groups in the northern desert Friday, the African Union´s negotiator announced, after the Tuareg and Arab insurgents captured the flashpoint town of Kidal.
The town is the cradle of Mali´s separatist movement, which wants independence for a vast swathe of northern desert it calls “Azawad” and which has launched several rebellions since the 1960s.”We have just signed an agreement which opens the way for a ceasefire,” Mauritanian President and African Union chairman Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz said on Mali public television after brokering the deal.
“The deal comes into effect with the signature of all parties,” he said, after first the rebel group in Kidal agreed and later Interior Minister Sada Samake signed on behalf of the government in Bamako.
