Mali's ex-rebels to fight terrorism
http://news.africast.com/africastv/article.php?newsID=61301
BAMAKO, February 22 -- Former Tuareg rebels in Mali will form special police units to combat terrorism and weapons trafficking in their country's northern deserts, according to a peace deal with the Malian government finalised in Algiers, state news agency reported on Wednesday.
Military units made up of Tuareg nomads will patrol Mali's northern deserts and scrubland, the haunt of armed groups believed to co-operate with the former Salafist Group for Call and Combat, also known as GSPC, Algeria's APS news agency reported on Tuesday.
Western and North African governments believe the GSPC, an al-Qaeda affiliate that last month changed its name to al-Qaeda in North Africa, is seeking to work more closely with other Islamic militants around the region.
The Malian government and the former rebel group, which is known as the May 23 2006 Alliance for Democratic Change, agreed to the new police force and other measures that finalized their peace deal.
They hammered out an initial deal in July, also in Algeria. Mali's large northern neighbour has quietly mediated in the conflict since it erupted in May 2006.
The peace deal committed the government to step up development of three northern centres - Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu, officials said, and the desert rebels to drop autonomy demands.
The nomadic Tuaregs led a rebellion in the early 1990s to protest what they claim is the government's failure to develop the poor northern regions, but many were later integrated into the army as part of the initial peace deal.
Algeria has helped establish a camp in Kidal, where at least 3 000 Tuareg troops will undergo training. An international forum in the province is slated for March with the goal of drumming up funding for the project. - Sapa
Nice post. Mali and her former opponents are clearly on the right side in the War against Terrorism.