DAKAR, Senegal: The main rebel separatist groups fighting government forces in northern Mali said in a statement on Thursday that they would form a new coalition and appoint a pro-independence figure as its leader.
After a five-day meeting at the end of April, representatives from the Permanent Strategic Framework (CSP), a coalition of predominantly Tuareg rebel groups, announced the creation of a “new structure with the aim of achieving the creation of a single political entity bearing the claims of the people of Azawad”.
Azawad is the name of the land claimed by the separatists in northern part of the country.
Malian army offensives captured Kidal, a stronghold of the pro-independence movement and a key sovereignty issue for the government, and the rebels lost control of several northern towns in late 2023.
According to a statement released Thursday one of the primary and prime objectives of the new structure is to use every means possible to secure a political and legal status for the territory of Azawad. It also called on the “lifeblood of Azawad… to join hands and mobilise to defend their existence on their territory”.
According to the statement the new alliance, called the Permanent Strategic Framework for the Defence of the People of Azawad (CSP-DPA), is chaired by leading pro-independence figure Bilal Ag Acherif, a historic opponent of the central government and was the subject of financial sanctions issued by the Malian authorities in March.
The impoverished, landlocked country in Africa’s Sahel region has been in crisis since 2012, when independence and a jihadist insurgency began in the north.
The country has been under military rule since successive coups in 2020 and 2021, with the military government cutting ties with France, its former colonial power, and pivoting towards Russia.
