The opening of a dialogue with armed Islamists could increase tensions with France, always opposed to such tractings.
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In Mali, the official appointment of the Islamic Consulting (HCI) as the authority responsible for “negotiating with Malian jihadists”, confirmed Tuesday, October 19 by the transition government, comes to formalize an existing situation for several years. The Malian power since 2017, expressed its willingness to open up trades with armed Islamists, affiliated with Al-Qaeda, which have steadily increased their range in the North and the center of the country. At the same time, the HCI, a hyphen between the political authorities and the religious associations, had already multiplied the contacts.
In the direction of his former boss, the Imam Mahmoud Dicko, this structure had negotiated, in 2012, from the release of soldiers. The religious Wahhabite then presented itself as the best tool for “bringing back to the right way his lost brothers”, in the first place Iyad AG Ghali, the emir of the support group of Islam and Muslims, and his lieutenant Amadou Koufa to The head of Katiba Macina.
Past since 2019 under the ferrule of Chérif Ousmane Madani Haidara, a preacher of Malikite rite, very popular in Mali, the HCI did not lose his status as a facilitator. But this role had not been formally formalized, neither by the former President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, overthrew in August 2020, who did not believe in dialogue with jihadists, nor by the first transitional authorities who left this project in fallow. This function is now openly recognized, the HCI having, according to an internal source, received its mandate on July 14 by mail from the Minister of Religious Affairs and Cult.
Weakness position
“We will find a Malian solution to prevent the blood from the Malians still running. We will sit without intermediary”, Promet Moufa Haidara, first secretary of HCI. The latter does not say when could start the discussions, nor what will be the perimeter. “We will discuss everything. There are red lines but they have not yet been set by the government. The essential thing is that we have in common blood ties and fraternity between Muslims”, advance “It’s a guarantee of compromise. Iyad AG Ghali was more explicit about his conditions for peace: the departure of foreign troops, including French, Mali and the application of Sharia, Islamic law.
In the face of armed Islamists, the transitional authorities present themselves in a weak position, without a territorial reconquest to oppose, in a form of capitulation which does not say its name. “One of the limits of this dialogue is that the desired purpose and the offer that the government can produce have not been defined, is worried about Baba Dakono, Executive Secretary of the Citizen Observatory on Governance and Security. Another is to place this question in the hands of the religious as the problem can not be reduced to this dimension. ”
The prospect of these negotiations with Jihadist leaders risks even more betting from Bamako, in a context of tension around the possible arrival of Russian mercenaries in Mali. By diplomatic pressure or by public exit – “no dialogue and compromise” with the jihadist leaders, exhorted in June Emmanuel Macron – France has so far endeavored to deter Malians from moving forward in this direction. But no one can say that it still has the means.