An Armed Force In Mali Withdraws From The Constitution Commission

An armed group in Mali that agreed to a significant peace agreement in 2015 said this week that it was abandoning attempts to create a new constitution.

The new constitution is a crucial component in a process of peace and reconciliation meant to hand up control of the nation to civilians by March 2024.

The majority-Tuareg Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA), which battled the state for years before signing the Algiers peace accord in 2015, accused the military junta in power of procrastination.

In a statement read by AFP on Saturday, the CMA noted that it had discontinued its involvement in the peace process in December due to the junta’s “lack of political will to sustain it,” along with practically all other armed organizations that signed the peace pact.

Only a few hours had passed when Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop accused the armed groups of “hampering” attempts to establish the peace process before deciding to take it a step further and boycott the job of revising the constitution.

The statement, which was released on Friday, claimed that, on the contrary, the “manifest loss in interest” of the administration was to blame for the “evident degradation” in efforts toward peace.

The CMA reiterated its demand for a meeting with foreign mediators to talk about the sustainability of the peace agreement, which it had said was on the verge of disintegrating in December.

Two military takeovers occurred in Mali, in August 2020 and May 2021.

The present military administration has decided to enable the restoration of civilian control in March in response to international pressure.