From local sources, fighting opposed early this Thursday morning, the Coordination Azawad Movements (CMA) and the Imghad and Allied Self-Defense Group (Gatia), two signatory movements of the peace agreement, in the south of Aguelhoc in the Kidal region.
Weapons are crackling again in northern Mali. Precisely in a locality near Aguelhoc, in the Kidal region, where signatory armed movements of the peace and reconciliation agreement are clashing. “We heard shots since yesterday, but it is this morning around 5am that the real fighting began”, says a resident who wonders: “which of the two movements is there for our good?”
For the moment, no report is available but the fighting is still ongoing, according to officials of the two movements who did not want to express themselves on the concrete reasons for the violence. Reinforcements on both sides would even be on their way to the scene of the clashes.
Confirming the violence, the UN mission in Mali condemned the attack in a statement. “If they (ceasefire violations) persist, they will affect not only the implementation of the Peace Agreement, thereby benefiting terrorism, but they will also undermine confidence in the good faith of the signatory movements” Said Mahamat Saleh Annadif, Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations. “These actions are all the more condemnable because they ignore all the appeals that we have not ceased to launch to their leaders”, added Mr. Annadif.
These clashes take place after several weeks of targeted assassinations of a tribal nature between Idnane, an ethnic group mainly composed of the MNLA (National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad) and Imghad majority in Gatia. According to reports provided by local sources and confirmed by the CMA, dozens of civilians have been killed.
Aboubacar Dicko