Tamanrasset Accords

   An agreement signed on 6 January 1991, in Tamanrasset, Algeria, between the Tuareg and the Malian government to address some of the pressing grievances that provoked the Tuareg insurgency. Among the provisions are the following: a cease-fire and exchange of prisoners; withdrawal of insurgent forces to cantonments; reduction of the army presence in the north, especially Kidal; disengagement of the army from civil administration in the north; elimination of selected military posts (considered threatening by the Tuareg communities); integration of insurgent combatants into the Malian army at ranks to be determined; acceleration of the ongoing processes of administrative decentralization in Mali; guarantee that a fixed percentage of Mali's national infrastructural budget would be devoted to the north (Regions 6, 7, and 8); repatriation of refugees, both those displaced within Mali itself and the thousands of Tuareg who had fled to neighboring countries, especially Algeria and Mauritania; and assurances to the Tuareg that their culture and sensitivities would be respected and that they would be valued as citizens of Mali.

   See also Tuareg Rebellions.