MALI’s military rulers announced late on Thursday that they have cancelled a 2015 peace deal with separatist rebels after months of fighting in the west African nation.

Government spokesman Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga said the deal, labelled as the Algiers Accord, had ended with immediate effect.

He accused the other signatories of failing to keep to the commitments they had made and also cited hostility by the chief mediator, Algeria.

Colonel Maiga said there had been an “increasing number of unfriendly acts and instances of hostility and interference in Mali’s internal affairs” by Algiers.

Algeria had acted as mediator to restore peace to Mali after the signing of the peace deal between Bamako and armed groups predominantly made up of the Tuareg ethnic group.

The Algerian ambassador was summoned by the Malian authorities last month over “interference and unfriendly acts” as his country was accused of holding talks with Tuareg separatists without involving Bamako.

CMA spokesperson, Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying it was not surprised by the decision.

He said: “We have been expecting it since they brought in Wagner, chased out Minusma [the UN peacekeeping group] and started hostilities by attacking our positions on the ground.

“We knew that the aim was to terminate the agreement.”