Jama’at Nasr al-Islam seeks peace in Mail

Ahmed Adel

Following the example of an agreement between the Taliban and the United States that was signed in February, Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin, al-Qaeda’s branch in the Sahel and Sahara region, said it would drop arms and seek peace in the region.

Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin, which is led by Iyad Ag Ghaly, said in a statement on March 10, it was ready to negotiate with Mali’s government and start a peace process in the region. The Sahel region has been torn by insecurity and terrorist attacks.

The group has asserted its acceptance of negotiations with Mali’s government as the oppressed people of Mali wish, as the group’s statement put it.

Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta called in February for talks with the jihadists in northern Mali.

The French newspaper Le Figaro said ascribed the move to the return of Algerian diplomacy to the region, citing a visit of Mali’s foreign minister to Algeria in October 2019.

Algeria has led negotiations between Mali’s government and the Tuareg armed group. The talks led to a preliminary peace deal signed in Algeria in May 2015. The final agreement between the two parties was signed in June 2015.

In January, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune voiced Algeria’s interest in leading a peace process in Mali.  Tebboune called on France to give up the military solution, which may complicate the situation in the Sahel region.

Researcher Mohamed Ezz Eddin, an expert on African affairs, said that al-Qaeda and its branches will end up like the Taliban to drop arms, citing the French military operations in the Sahel and Sahara region.

“The international and regional powers, led by France and the US, pressure the jihadist groups in the Sahel and Sahara region,” Ezz Eddin said, noting that the military operations and the logistic support killed many terrorists in the region.