(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) Mali's Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) group has suspended its participation in a committee tasked with monitoring the implementation of a June 20 peace deal between it and a pro-government militia, local media reported on Monday.
According to the Mali Actu daily newspaper, CMA spokesman Sidi Brahim Ould Sidati said that the group had decided to withdraw from the monitoring committee "until the Tuareg armed vigilante group Imghad and its allies [GATIA] leave the city of Anefif".
Sidati did not say, however, whether the decision would be followed by the group's withdrawal from the peace agreement itself.
The Algeria-led monitoring committee was set up in June to oversee implementation of the agreement, which was signed first by the Malian government on May 15 and then by rebel groups on June 20.
On Aug. 15, the town of Anefif in northeastern Mali's Kidal region reportedly fell to the pro-government GATIA militia.
Kidal is considered a stronghold of the Tuareg rebel group, which is the main component of the CMA.
The fall of Anefif represented the first time since mid-2014 for the CMA to lose control of a town in the Kidal region.
On Aug. 18, the UN's Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) set up a safety zone around the northeastern town of Kidal following fierce fighting between pro-government militiamen and Tuareg rebel groups that left dozens dead.
On Sunday, MINUSMA held an emergency meeting between the Malian authorities and various armed groups based in the country's north.
Sources close to the meeting told Anadolu Agency that pro-government groups had no intention to withdraw from Anefif.
In 2012, violence erupted in northern Mali following a failed coup attempt and a Tuareg rebellion that allowed al-Qaeda-linked militants to take over the northern half of the country.
In early 2013, former colonial power France sent troops to the North African country and - with the help of Chadian and other African forces - flushed the militants from Mali's main northern cities.
Nevertheless, recent months have continued to see sporadic attacks on UN peacekeepers and Malian army personnel.
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