The Tuareg rebel coalition groups finally signed a peace agreement with government on June 20, 2015.

Peace, stability and progress are expected to gradually return to north Mali as the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA),  have finally signed a peace agreement with the Bamako government. The coalition of Tuareg rebel movements had hitherto refused to endorse the U.N.-brokered peace agreement, the government, international mediators and the loyalists pro-Bamako rebel groups signed in Algiers, Algeria on March 1, 2015 and further endorsed last May in the Malian capital, Bamako, claiming that the terms of the agreement did not meet the greater autonomy aspirations of Azawad people of northern Mali.

Finally signing the agreement in Bamako on Saturday, June 20, 2015 on behalf of Coordination of Azawad Movements, Sidi Ibrahim Ould Sidatte,  called it "an act of hope" and part of a process toward peace in the north of the country even though it did not address the security issues still destabilizing the area, Associated Press reported. "The agreement recognized that the issue of Azawad is a political problem, that a solution had not been found and should be studied further during the period of transition," Associated Press further quoted him as saying.

The U.N.-brokered accord calls for the election of regional assemblies in Mali, but stops short of granting autonomy to northern Mali, the Voice of America reported. It further indicates that separatist demands were a main cause of an uprising that followed a military coup that ousted Mali's president in the sub-Saharan south.

The government represented in the June 20, 2015 landmark ceremony by President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said it was prepared to devolve more authority under Mali's existing decentralised structure, but rejects demands for full autonomy within a federal system, Reuters reported. In response, CMA representative Mahamadou Djeri Maiga told the ceremony: "We are placing a lot of hope in the assurances of IBK (the president) and our international partners," Reuters quoted.

Malian authorities said Algeria would head an independent commission charged with monitoring the deal. The Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary General for Mali, Mongi Hamdi, is reported to have said the 11,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission (MINUSMA) would also support the deal's implementation.