Volte - Face

Well, it seems that we shouted 'Hurrah' to speedily.
Although The CMA (Co-ordinated Movements of Azawad, which includes most importantly the MNLA) had assured the Algiers negotiators that they were willing to sign the Peace Treaty on the 15th of April and Algiers  in turn had relayed this news  to the Malian government ( who still this evening is continuing to relay this joyful message in several languages on  national TV) it now appears they have changed their minds. A press statement from Moussa Ag Attaher, the CMA spokesman  in Nouakchott insists that there are several points they cannot accept and they will therefore not be able to sign after all.
There have been several points the Malian government could not accept either, but they were made to accept them by international pressure for this peace deal which will give much more autonomy to the north  via a policy of de-centralisation.
Keita and I were wondering all day yesterday why there were no international news coverage of this important breakthrough: nothing on French news.  It is all as clear as mud what is actually going on. There are  things moving behind the scenes here, things we cannot know but only guess at...

Iyad Ag Ghali, the northern warlord whose Ançar Dine held Kidal during the Jihadist occupation, is still in hiding due to a mandate for his arrest, but he is  a big player in this drama. Another is the new Amenokal - the traditonal leader of the Tuaregs of the Kidal Area- who is also incidentally a deputy for Kidal in the National Assembly. He was in Bamako yesterday, speaking  with a severely forked tongue: he  mouths allegiance to a secular state of Mali; united and undivided while at the same time his recommendations for the solving of the crisis involves three eccentric and to  the Malian government indigestible concepts: he wants Kidal to adopt Sharia Law, he wants the unconditional dropping of all charges against Iyad Ag Ghali and finally he insists that  the Malian Army should only be allowed  to return to  the Kidal area if the Gatia force, a  highly efficient semi-militia, loyal to the government and led by the Touareg General Gamou, that  torn in the flesh for the MNLA is excluded.
So; in other words; it is all still a mess...