The CMA move will also affect the obligation for all foreigners in Kidal to have a local tutor and strengthening the power of the traditional judge known as cadi.
While the CMA, which has been administering the city of Kidal for several years, their decision was informed by “a concern for appeasement,” the fact remains that the measures it had taken had provoked an outcry, particularly from the body monitoring the implementation of the peace and reconciliation agreement in Mali.
Describing the measures as “null and void,” the body considered that they “constitute a violation of the agreement and the sovereign prerogatives of the Republic of Mali.”