PRESS RELEASE FROM THE AZAWAD LIBERATION FRONT
The FLA informs national and international public opinion that it has become aware of comments made on July 22, 2025, by the head of the Bamako military junta, during a ceremony to present a pseudo-charter known as “National Reconciliation.”
The FLA, convinced that this document, far from being the product of a genuine peace process, much less a response to injustices, is yet another charade that is more akin to a political delaying tactic, exclusively intended to restore, even slightly, the tarnished image of a regime lacking legitimacy.
We reaffirm that neither the hollow formalism of the said document, nor the arrogant arrogance of the statements of the leader of the criminal junta in Bamako, can alter our constant and unwavering commitment to the total reconquest of the territory of Azawad, as well as the emancipation of its people, by whatever means it deems legitimate and sovereign.
It is essential to emphasize that the FLA is not seeking any mediation, and is not considering any form of negotiation with an illegitimate military regime, sufficiently discredited by its barbaric and inhumane practices against the people of Azawad in particular and Mali in general; its inability to honor its own commitments, freely made in the very recent past, thus exacerbating the multidimensional crises shaking Mali and threatening the entire subregion.
The FLA remains more faithful than ever to its mission: the determination to make the voice of the people of Azawad heard, defend their rights and restore their dignity, in complete independence.
The Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) announced its categorical rejection of the “National Reconciliation Charter” that was announced by interim Malian President Assimi Goita in Bamako on July 22. In a statement issued by its executive office, the Front considered the charter “unrelated to a genuine peace process, but rather merely a new political maneuver aimed at polishing the image of a regime that has lost its legitimacy.”
Assimi Goita: “Whoever wants peace should leave weapons first and then come and sit at the dialogue table, we discuss among ourselves as Malian people without the intervention of external parties”
Let´s look into the analysis by Khamidoune Ag Toumast:
If General Assimi Goita and his supporters are truly sincere in their will for peace, they should first stop arming their planes to bomb innocent villages in the north of the country (Azawad) and stop sending Wagner militias and African mercenaries to sow terror instead of peace.
You can’t reach out to peace with one hand while firing with the other!
You say “He who wants peace must lay down his arms” – but who started the breakup?
Who sabotaged the Algiers agreement?
Who refused to implement their clauses one by one?
Who closed the international monitoring commission of the agreement?
And who announced an alternative pact without consulting neither the signatory movements nor the people of Azawad?
Isn’t this the behavior of the party that claims today to “call for dialogue” ?
Asking the oppressed to lay down their weapons while it is being bombed, killed and displaced is pure colonial reasoning.
Guns have never been our first choice, but a necessity imposed to defend our people, victims of a slow genocide under the guise of “legitimacy”.
He who wants a real dialogue does not begin by excluding his partners, monopolizing the decision, or accusing the other of terrorism simply because he refuses to submit!
Regarding your call to “siege between Malians” without external interference, this is an argument that comes back to you in boomerang.
The Azawad is not a foreign body it has existed here for centuries, long before even Mali.
And you are the first to appeal abroad to each crisis of French forces at Wagner to regional political support.
So why does external intervention suddenly become ‘inadmissible’ only when it comes to Azawad and his legitimate rights?
Dialogue is not forced, it is built on mutual trust and equal respect.
And true peace is not born from the cannon of a gun, but from the just recognition of each people at the disposal of their destiny, to live in dignity, without imposing on them who they should be or what they should become.
The declaration of the Azawad Liberation Front is crystal clear! NO negotiations! Total independence for Azawad.
Azawad Support Group
24-07-25