Militia leaves key Mali town, reviving hopes for peace deal

Bamako: Pro-government militia leaders agreed to evacuate a flashpoint town in Mali`s restive north, officials told AFP on Thursday, removing a key obstacle to the country`s fragile peace process.

"After talks with mediators and partners, we the GATIA (a pro-government militia) have decided to facilitate the process of pulling out from Menaka," the group`s general secretary Haballa Ag Hamza told AFP, adding that the withdrawal will start on Friday.

"We want peace, we`re making an important gesture, but it`s clear that it is the UN mission which must ensure the safety of Menaka`s population, and not another group," he said.

Loyalist militias seized Menaka from the west African country`s Tuareg-led rebel alliance in April, in an operation which has sparked several violations of a ceasefire agreement, leaving many dead on both sides.

The move threatened to undermine the country`s already fragile and long-running peace process, which seeks to end years of bloody insurgency by Tuareg and other armed militias in the country`s volatile northern desert.

Fighters from the rebellion, known as the CMA, are due on Saturday to sign a peace deal hammered out under the auspices of the UN, which has already been rubber-stamped by the government and loyalist armed groups.

A person close to the UN mission in Mali, MINUSMA, confirmed a deal had been struck to evacuate pro-government forces from the northeastern town, which lies close to the Nigerian border.

"GATIA has agreed to leave Menaka. The last obstacle for Saturday`s ceremony has been lifted," the source said on condition of anonymity.

The UN Security Council on Thursday said it was waiting for the CMA to sign the Algiers Accord, urging both sides to abstain from any actions that could threaten the peace process and calling on pro-government forces to leave Menaka.

Mali was shaken by a coup in 2012 that cleared the way for Tuareg separatists to seize towns and cities in the vast northern desert, who were then overpowered by Al-Qaeda-linked militants.

Despite a French military offensive, the country remains riven by ethnic conflict, with the Tuareg and Arab people of the north accusing groups in the more prosperous south of treating them as second-class citizens.