Algeria persuades 500 Touareg rebels lay down weapons in a special ceremony

Finally, the Algerian mediation succeeded in realizing the dream of peace in the northern areas of Mali, along the southern borders of Algeria.

• Over 500 members of the Touareg laid down their weapons in a ceremony which was postponed many times and declared their joint to the peace agreement, previously signed in Algeria.  
• Both General Kavoguna, Mali’s Minister of the Territorial Administration and Abdelkrim Gharib, Algeria’s ambassador in Bamako, supervised on the weapons’ lay down operation by the Touareg rebels.
• Algerian Ambassador played, as a mediator, a big role in bringing the two parties to dialogue, which was concluded by an agreement in July 2006 in Algeria.
• The agreement about ending the use of arms in the region was breached many times, until the army intervened and drove away elements of the largest rebellion in the region, led by Ibrahim Ag Bahanga.
• The 500 elements which attended the ceremony to lay down their arms belong to the Democratic Alliance for Change in Northern Mali.
• The DACNM is the most important part in Algeria’s agreement. It is the organization which took up arms against the central government in Bamako, after demands for a fair distribution of development requirements in the northern regions compared to the central and southern areas of Mali. It accused government of discrimination acts between the ethnic blacks who control the power and the Blue Men “Touareg”, the Bedouin nomads who live in the north.
• “It is a new and decisive step made through the realization of commitments which we insisted on in Algiers’ agreement. This success reflects Algeria’s efforts to help the Malians live in peace, prosperity and development,” Algerian ambassador, Gharib said.
• The ceremony marked lay down of weapons by former rebels and the presence of Ibrahim Ag Bahanga’s fellows.
• Ibrahim Ag Bahanga still refuses to comply with Algiers agreement, which reflects the split inside the organization of the Touareg leader, who disappeared since he left Mali escaping the Malian regular army’s attack on the Touareg’s strongholds beginning of February.
• Bahanga and his fellows refuse Algiers agreement saying that the central government in Bamako rejected their demand to release the Touareg detainees, at a time the former rebels released dozens of the Malian regular soldiers, which led them to continue rebellion, after a short truce, preferring to engage in the Libyan mediation.