Tuaregs reach peace accord

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Reuters does a great job of covering trouble spots around the world. They pay attention to things that major US media hold in their blind spot.

So read the latest on the situation in north Mali with the Tuareg nomads.

BAMAKO, June 30 (Reuters) - Mali has reached a peace agreement with Tuareg rebels seeking greater autonomy for their northern desert region, a senior government official and a spokesman for the insurgents said on Friday.

The light-skinned, nomadic gunmen attacked army camps in the Saharan trading town of Kidal last month, looting vehicles and arms before retreating to mountains near the Algerian border, raising fears of a full-scale desert rebellion.

"The demands for autonomy, special status, or the creation of local governance structures have been abandoned," a senior official from Mali's Territorial Administration Ministry told Reuters, asking not to be named.

Territorial Administration Minister Kafougouna Kone travelled to Algeria last week for talks with Tuareg leaders, who launched revolts from Kidal in the 1960s and 1990s demanding greater freedom from a black African-dominated government.

The ministry official said the government had agreed to speed up development in the impoverished north and to allow deserters to rejoin the army. He said some who had joined the ranks of the insurgents had already returned to barracks.

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