The meeting began on Wednesday March 16, it ended on Thursday March 17 in Gao, in the north. The Malian Minister for National Reconciliation and the leaders of the armed groups were to finalize the agreement in principle signed in Rome in order to resume together the implementation of the peace agreement. But the meeting ended in failure.
The Malian Minister for National Reconciliation, Colonel Ismaël Wagué, wanted to join the CSP and take over its presidency. The CSP, Permanent Strategic Framework, made up of all the signatory armed groups of the peace agreement – the ex-independence rebels of the CMA as well as the Malian pro-state groups of the Platform – would thus have become the CSPR, Permanent Strategic Framework for Reconciliation.
But if these armed groups are in favor of government support, they did not accept that the Malian minister wanted to immediately take over the rotating presidency of the Cadre. After Bilal Ag Acherif, secretary general of the MNLA, it is therefore Fahad Ag Almahmoud, secretary general of the Gatia, who officially became president of the Framework for six months. This was indicated by the leaders of the armed groups contacted by RFI.
A dialogue that continues
For its part, the Malian Ministry of National Reconciliation, recognizing the lack of agreement, explains leaving “ more time for stakeholders to reach consensus on this issue “. On both sides, we assure that the dialogue is not broken, a way of noting the failure of this meeting by showing optimism.
The Peace Agreement Monitoring Committee has not met since October 2021, and hostile statements have multiplied, on both sides, in recent weeks.
A next meeting should take place between Minister Wagué and the armed groups, the date of which has not yet been set.