Showing posts with label Mali. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mali. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
MALI: Islamists destroy heritage and take human shields
By Elizabeth Kendal
The cultural heritage of Timbuktu -- destroyed
Having seized control of northern Mali, al Qaeda-linked jihadists are now destroying the cultural heritage of Timbuktu.
Reached by telephone in an undisclosed location in northern Mali, Ansar Dine spokesman Oumar Ould Hamaha told Associated Press: "The only tribunal we recognize is the divine court of Shariah. The destruction is a divine order. It's our Prophet who said that each time that someone builds something on top of a grave, it needs to be pulled back to the ground. We need to do this so that future generations don't get confused, and start venerating the saints as if they are God."
See: Islamistscontinue destroying Timbuktu heritage
By Rukmini Callimachi, Associated Press 2 July 2012
According to Reuters: "The UNESCO ambassadors meeting in St. Petersburg on Tuesday joined Malian Culture Minister Toure in appealing to global governments and organisations and 'all people of goodwill' to act to prevent the prevent the destruction of the Timbuktu monuments by 'vandals'. 'We consider this action to be a crime against history,' the appeal said.
"Experts are comparing the Timbuktu tomb destructions to similar attacks against Sufi shrines by hardline Salafists in Egypt and Libya in the past year. The attacks also recall al Qaeda attacks on Shi'ite shrines in Iraq in the past decade and the 2001 dynamiting by the Taliban of two 6th-century statues of Buddha carved into a cliff in Bamiyan in central Afghanistan."
See: Timbuktu tomb destroyers pulverise Islam's history
By Pascal Fletcher , Tue Jul 3, 2012
No-one should be surprised, for as history demonstrates, cultural destruction such as this is to be expected when Islamist take power. [see footnote]
The citizens of Gao -- taken hostage
According to Mossa Ag Attaher, a Paris-based spokesman for the Tuareg-nationalist National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and its offshoot, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), "have mined the area surrounding Gao. Many people are trying to escape, to take the bus to go to Bamako, but the Islamists are stopping them."
The MNLA spokesman told AFP that Gao residents "are facing a serious humanitarian crisis. After the criminal destruction of the shrines of Muslim saints, (the Islamists) are now using the population as hostages, as a human shield to protect itself from an MNLA counter-attack."
A west African source also confirmed to AFP that landmines had been planted around Gao "to prevent a possible attack by troops" from the west African regional bloc ECOWAS.
See: Al-Qaeda has mined access to key Mali town:Tuareg rebels
Monday, 02 July 2012
Also: Islamists smash Timbuktu relics
AEST Tue Jul 3 2012
" 'The population in Gao has been taken hostage,' Bernard Valero, a French Foreign Ministry spokesman, said separately. 'Within the context of war and a food crisis, mines appear to have been laid around the city to prevent people from leaving. This in our eyes is an act of terrorism. ' "
See: Islamists mine Gao
3 July 2012, By John Irish and Tiemoko Diallo
Footnote:
For more on this subject of Islam's destruction of its own history,
see: Islam vs. History
by Daniel Pipes
July 2, 2012
On Islam destroying Christian history:
Surely one the most horrendous "crimes against history" committed in recent decades is the desecration and destruction of well over 100 churches, monasteries and religious sites across Serbia's Kosovo province between 1999-2003.
What makes this "crime against history" so particularly egregious is that, unlike the crimes against history committed in North Africa, Iraq and Afghanistan, the crimes against history committed in Kosovo were not committed by militant African, Middle Eastern and "Afghan" Salafi jihadi purists exploiting a security vacuum, but by "white" Albanian Muslims and US-allied KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army) personnel under the watchful eye of US-NATO KFOR "protection" forces.
For 60 pages of documentary evidence see: Kosovo Crucified.
This report lists 107 desecrated and destroyed sites; identifies which NATO force was responsible for protecting that site; details the degree of destruction; and provides foundation dates.
For example:
(2) The Church of the Mother of God near Suva Reka;
KFOR zone of responsibility: German;
church razed (terrain cleared, all traces of existence removed);
church founded in 1315.
Around 35 churches and monasteries were subsequently desecrated and destroyed when some 50,000 Albanian Muslims went on an anti-Serb and anti-Christian racial-religious pogrom across Kosovo over 17-19 March 2004.
Quite a few of the properties destroyed dated back to the mid 14th century and contained some of the most exquisite iconography known, but now lost, to the world.
Friday, June 29, 2012
MALI: Islamists oust Tuareg-nationalist MNLA -- making the reality official.
By Elizabeth Kendal
BACKGROUND
After the Malian government in Bamako was overthrown in a military coup on 22 March, the Tuareg nationalist-secularist National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), with support from the al-Qaeda-linked Islamists of Ansar Dine, exploited the chaos to advance and seize control of northern Mali. Since then, more than 300,000 people are estimated to have fled northern Mali.
See MALI: Christians flee as jihadists seize control of north
Religious Liberty Monitoring 11 April 2012
As long as the MNLA and Ansar Dine were fighting their common enemy (the Malian government) the alliance worked well. However, the mismatched forces proved unable to work together in government, for while the MNLA's goal is an independent state, Ansar Dine's goal is the imposition of Islamic Sharia law across the whole country. From the very beginning, despite the MNLA's leadership and elevated profile, the reality on the ground has always been that the al-Qaeda-linked Ansar Dine is the stronger force and the one in control.
See MALI: Islamist's weapons seizure will greatly boost AQIM's striking power
Religious Liberty Monitoring 5 June 2012
ISLAMISTS OUST TUAREG-NATIONALIST MNLA
-- making the reality official.
On Tuesday 26 June, the Islamists seized control of Gao from the Tuareg MNLA. Twenty-six people were killed (mostly armed militants; mostly MNLA) and dozens wounded in fighting which involved the use of heavy weapons. MNLA political leader, Bilal Ag Cherif, was wounded. The al-Qaeda-linked Islamists took over buildings that had been occupied by the Tuaregs -- including their headquarters.
Claiming to have merely made a tactical retreat, the MNLA denies it has lost the fight. "Right now some MNLA units, stationed at the borders of Azawad, are coming back to completely rid the city of Gao of Islamist groups that are terrorizing the population," MNLA spokesman Mossa Ag Attaher said in a written statement.
Reuters reports that a Timbuktu resident said on Thursday (28 June) that MNLA fighters who had been stationed at the city's airport and port had now even abandoned those positions. (Confirmed by AP)
See Reuters: Islamists declare full control of Mali's north
By Tiemoko Diallo and Adama Diarra
BAMAKO, Thu 28 June 2012
Details in Serge Daniel's account will give Bamako cause for concern, along with all the Christians, secularists and moderates who have fled there:
"The Islamists slowly moved their chessmen into place, first blocking the Tuareg from accessing the heavy weapons they had brought back from Libya and hidden in the AQIM-controlled mountains in north-eastern Mali, experts said.
"Then they won sympathy on the ground among the different tribes in the north, where Tuareg are a minority, by distributing basic goods and insisting they wanted to maintain the territorial integrity of Mali.
" 'When the mujahideen took Gao, they walked through the town brandishing the Malian flag, we liked that,' said Saly Toure who works for the Sahel Museum in Gao which has been closed since the beginning of the crisis.
"But to win 'the Islamists also played the corruption card wholeheartedly,' said an African diplomat based in Bamako, on condition of anonymity. 'A very influent leader of a citizens' association in Gao was "bought". Since then he turned his back on the Tuareg to support the Islamists.'
"He said the defeat of the MNLA would change the framework of negotiations with transition authorities who took over from the junta.
"Lacking money, abandoned by their supporters and riven by internal divisions [between French and Arabic speaking factions], the Tuareg rebels have been sorely weakened, and only hold small towns such as Gossi, Menaka and Anderamboukane.
See: Islamists rout Tuareg from their own rebellion in north Mali
By Serge Daniel (AFP) 28 June 2012
Al Jazeera has a more detailed report:
'Dozens killed' in northern Mali fighting
At least 20 people dead as Islamist and Tuareg groups battle for control of northern towns.
Al Jazeera 28 Jun 2012
NOTE: Al Jazeera reports there are at least two Islamist factions involved: the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) - which seized parts of Gao - and Ansar Dine, which based itself in Timbuktu. Both Islamist groups are believed to have links to al-Qaeda.
BACKGROUND
After the Malian government in Bamako was overthrown in a military coup on 22 March, the Tuareg nationalist-secularist National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), with support from the al-Qaeda-linked Islamists of Ansar Dine, exploited the chaos to advance and seize control of northern Mali. Since then, more than 300,000 people are estimated to have fled northern Mali.
See MALI: Christians flee as jihadists seize control of north
Religious Liberty Monitoring 11 April 2012
As long as the MNLA and Ansar Dine were fighting their common enemy (the Malian government) the alliance worked well. However, the mismatched forces proved unable to work together in government, for while the MNLA's goal is an independent state, Ansar Dine's goal is the imposition of Islamic Sharia law across the whole country. From the very beginning, despite the MNLA's leadership and elevated profile, the reality on the ground has always been that the al-Qaeda-linked Ansar Dine is the stronger force and the one in control.
See MALI: Islamist's weapons seizure will greatly boost AQIM's striking power
Religious Liberty Monitoring 5 June 2012
ISLAMISTS OUST TUAREG-NATIONALIST MNLA
-- making the reality official.
On Tuesday 26 June, the Islamists seized control of Gao from the Tuareg MNLA. Twenty-six people were killed (mostly armed militants; mostly MNLA) and dozens wounded in fighting which involved the use of heavy weapons. MNLA political leader, Bilal Ag Cherif, was wounded. The al-Qaeda-linked Islamists took over buildings that had been occupied by the Tuaregs -- including their headquarters.
Claiming to have merely made a tactical retreat, the MNLA denies it has lost the fight. "Right now some MNLA units, stationed at the borders of Azawad, are coming back to completely rid the city of Gao of Islamist groups that are terrorizing the population," MNLA spokesman Mossa Ag Attaher said in a written statement.
Reuters reports that a Timbuktu resident said on Thursday (28 June) that MNLA fighters who had been stationed at the city's airport and port had now even abandoned those positions. (Confirmed by AP)
See Reuters: Islamists declare full control of Mali's north
By Tiemoko Diallo and Adama Diarra
BAMAKO, Thu 28 June 2012
Details in Serge Daniel's account will give Bamako cause for concern, along with all the Christians, secularists and moderates who have fled there:
"The Islamists slowly moved their chessmen into place, first blocking the Tuareg from accessing the heavy weapons they had brought back from Libya and hidden in the AQIM-controlled mountains in north-eastern Mali, experts said.
"Then they won sympathy on the ground among the different tribes in the north, where Tuareg are a minority, by distributing basic goods and insisting they wanted to maintain the territorial integrity of Mali.
" 'When the mujahideen took Gao, they walked through the town brandishing the Malian flag, we liked that,' said Saly Toure who works for the Sahel Museum in Gao which has been closed since the beginning of the crisis.
"But to win 'the Islamists also played the corruption card wholeheartedly,' said an African diplomat based in Bamako, on condition of anonymity. 'A very influent leader of a citizens' association in Gao was "bought". Since then he turned his back on the Tuareg to support the Islamists.'
"He said the defeat of the MNLA would change the framework of negotiations with transition authorities who took over from the junta.
"Lacking money, abandoned by their supporters and riven by internal divisions [between French and Arabic speaking factions], the Tuareg rebels have been sorely weakened, and only hold small towns such as Gossi, Menaka and Anderamboukane.
See: Islamists rout Tuareg from their own rebellion in north Mali
By Serge Daniel (AFP) 28 June 2012
Al Jazeera has a more detailed report:
'Dozens killed' in northern Mali fighting
At least 20 people dead as Islamist and Tuareg groups battle for control of northern towns.
Al Jazeera 28 Jun 2012
NOTE: Al Jazeera reports there are at least two Islamist factions involved: the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) - which seized parts of Gao - and Ansar Dine, which based itself in Timbuktu. Both Islamist groups are believed to have links to al-Qaeda.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
MALI: Islamist's weapons seizure will greatly boost AQIM's striking power
The trend across Mali's rebel-held north is towards forced Islamisation, Arabisation, escalating hardship and persecution.
Writing for New Straits Times, 5 June 2012, Adam Nossiter, describes the situation in the historic city of Timbuktu:
"Women are now forced to wear full, face-covering veils. Music is banned from the radio. Cigarettes are snatched from the mouths of pedestrians. And the look of the ancient mud-brick town is changing.
"An ancient monument, the shrine of a 15th-century saint, has been defaced, bars have been demolished and black flags have been hung around town to honour Ansar Dine, or Defenders of the Faith, the radical Islamist movement that emerged from the desert and turned life upside down.
"'There is no liberty,' said Abdoulaye Ahmed, a tailor who fled Timbuktu and came to Mali's capital, Bamako, last week. He added that the Islamist rebels 'are constantly circulating with their guns. This is scaring people. The town is sinister'."
"The situation is said to be especially troubling for women in Timbuktu.'Women are living in terrible fear,' said Baba Aicha Kalil, a well-known civic activist who still lives in the town. . . 'They want to put a veil on everything,' Kalil said. 'They are everywhere with their guns'."
On 5 June around 50 women and children courageously demonstrated against the Islamist presence in Kidal. Marching from the stadium to the main Kidal market, they chanted in their local language, "We don't want strangers here", and "We don't want Islamists here", until men in three pick-ups bearing the Ansar Dine flag intervened and beat the demonstrators, violently dispersing their protest.
On 22 May, Christian Today published an Appeal for Christians in Mali (22 May) in which the Christian charity Worldshare claims that the Islamic jihadists who have seized control of northern Mali have conducted house to house searches hunting for Christians, and that people have been tortured into revealing their Christian relatives. Confirming earlier reports, Worldshare, which has been working with a ministry in Timbuktu since 2001 and with the Gao Evangelical Church since 2004, also said that church and Christian property in Timbuktu and Gao has either been looted or destroyed.
All across northern Mali, the humanitarian situation is dire (ICRC 25 May 2012). Many Christians have fled south to Bamako, the capital, where they are living as refugees. Food stocks are low.
------------------------------------------
An agreement, A Split and The Reality
------------------------------------------
An Agreement
On 26 May, the avowedly secular Tuareg nationalist group, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), signed a protocol agreement with Islamic jihadists Ansar Dine, to join forces for the implementation of an independent Islamic state.
CNN reports: "The agreement between the secular Tuareg and the Islamists comes after weeks of sometimes heated discussions between two movements, separated both in their objectives and ideologies. While the MNLA is fighting for an independent Azawad, Ansar Dine's main objective is to impose Sharia law in all of Mali.
"In the besieged towns, drinking, smoking, listening to music, watching soccer on TV and playing video games have been banned in what now seems to be a preparation for the creation of an Islamic state."
See: Mali rebel groups join forces, vowing an Islamic state
From Katarina Höije, For CNN, 27 May 2012
A Split
Only 48 hours after the protocol was signed, the deal collapsed, allegedly because the parties could not agree on how strictly to impose Sharia (Islamic) Law.
"We have refused to approve the final statement because it is different from the protocol agreement which we have signed," said Ibrahim Assaley, representing the MNLA. "It is as if they want us to dissolve into Ansar Dine," he complained. "That is unacceptable." (Al Jazeera 31 May)
Moussa Ag Asherif, a fighter close to the leadership of the Ansar Dine, told reporters that Iyad Ag Ghaly -- the shadowy leader of Ansar Dine who is known to have ties to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) -- would travel to Gao on Tuesday morning 29 May "to solve the problem".
The confusion has exposed a split in the MNLA, allegedly between the MNLA's French and Arabic speaking factions.
A statement issued by Hama Ag Mahmoud, a senior MNLA political figure read: "The political wing, the executive wing of the MNLA, faced with the intransigence of Ansar Dine on applying sharia in Azawad and in line with its resolutely secular stance, denounce the accord with this organisation and declare all its dispositions null and void."
Reuters reports: "In an open letter posted on Berber website Tamazgha.fr, the MNLA's communication director Mossa Ag Attaher acknowledged 'a growing malaise' in the ranks of the group linked to a feud between its French-speaking and Arab-speaking factions.
"While Attaher did not elaborate, the linguistic split could partly reflect divisions between those rebels who have remained in the former French colony and those who were based in Libya until the fall of Muammar Gaddafi.
"'The application of sharia and the Arabisation of our people is a grave violation of our culture and identity,' he said of a region in which nomadic Tuaregs have co-existed with other ethnic groups and where moderate Islam is widely practised.
"But a senior military official for Ansar Dine contacted in the northern city of Gao said the well-armed group continued to apply the agreement.
"The pact signed by the MNLA and Ansar Dine is irrevocable", Oumar Ould Hamama told Reuters by telephone from the northern city of Gao."The views of a few individuals within the MNLA cannot put this fusion in doubt. In any case, [the reality is] we are the majority in control of all three of Mali's northern regions."
See: Mali Tuareg leaders call off Islamist pact
Reuters, Friday 1 June 2012.
According to the most recent news, the rebels are working towards establishing a ruling council and a government of national unity.
The MNLA issued a statement in the northern city of Gao that said: 'The NMLA will put in place a provisional council that will lead the country in the coming period and will work to put in place a government of national unity'."
The statement said that the agreement signed between the two groups on May 26 "is being studied by the two parties and a commission is going to be appointed in order to treat the points of divergence." (Associated Press, 4 June)
The Reality
The reality on the ground is that al-Qaeda-linked Ansar Dine is stronger and in control; Sharia is being forcefully applied; and Northern Mali threatens to become a safe-haven for terrorist and a launch-pad for jihad.
In late May, the rebels seized a key underground weapons and ammunition depot of the Malian Army in Gao. A regional security source confirmed the seizure, saying the vast cache of weapons will greatly boost al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb's (AQIM's) striking power, adding that the group "is today more armed than the combined armies of Mali and Burkina Faso".
See: Al-Qaeda branch seizes key Mali arms depot as crisis deepens
By Serge Daniel (AFP) 27 May 2012
Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, a Mauritanian diplomat who has been a United Nations envoy in both West Africa and Somalia comments on the situation in Northern Mali: "We are in an early stage of Afghanistan and Somalia. There is no doubt in my mind."
Reporting for Reuters from Dakar, Senegal, David Lewis writes: "Ould-Abdallah and a swelling chorus of security experts point to an influx of foreign fighters, a debilitating rivalry between neighboring states, and steady flow of illicit funds as making Mali and the wider Saharan zone the next one to watch.
"In former colonial power France, the new defense minister warned last week of a 'west African Afghanistan' in Mali.
"The rebels' seizure of three major airstrips in the north - near the towns of Gao, Timbuktu and Tessalit - means that, in the absence of a functioning Malian air force, they can ferry in everything from drugs and weapons to yet more foreign fighters. . .
"Witnesses say the Islamists are better-resourced and more heavily armed than the Tuareg separatists . . . [a reality that is] allowing them to shunt the MNLA aside and take effective control on their own of towns across northern Mali."
See: Analysis: Mali: the world's next jihadi launchpad?
By David Lewis
DAKAR | Mon Jun 4, 2012
One wonders, what Al Qaeda's strategic priorities might be now that it has a solid foothold in Northern Mali through the extremely well armed Ansar Dine. Of one thing we may be certain: that jihad in Africa is about to go up a notch to become far more threatening and far more destructive.
Writing for New Straits Times, 5 June 2012, Adam Nossiter, describes the situation in the historic city of Timbuktu:
"Women are now forced to wear full, face-covering veils. Music is banned from the radio. Cigarettes are snatched from the mouths of pedestrians. And the look of the ancient mud-brick town is changing.
"An ancient monument, the shrine of a 15th-century saint, has been defaced, bars have been demolished and black flags have been hung around town to honour Ansar Dine, or Defenders of the Faith, the radical Islamist movement that emerged from the desert and turned life upside down.
"'There is no liberty,' said Abdoulaye Ahmed, a tailor who fled Timbuktu and came to Mali's capital, Bamako, last week. He added that the Islamist rebels 'are constantly circulating with their guns. This is scaring people. The town is sinister'."
"The situation is said to be especially troubling for women in Timbuktu.'Women are living in terrible fear,' said Baba Aicha Kalil, a well-known civic activist who still lives in the town. . . 'They want to put a veil on everything,' Kalil said. 'They are everywhere with their guns'."
On 5 June around 50 women and children courageously demonstrated against the Islamist presence in Kidal. Marching from the stadium to the main Kidal market, they chanted in their local language, "We don't want strangers here", and "We don't want Islamists here", until men in three pick-ups bearing the Ansar Dine flag intervened and beat the demonstrators, violently dispersing their protest.
On 22 May, Christian Today published an Appeal for Christians in Mali (22 May) in which the Christian charity Worldshare claims that the Islamic jihadists who have seized control of northern Mali have conducted house to house searches hunting for Christians, and that people have been tortured into revealing their Christian relatives. Confirming earlier reports, Worldshare, which has been working with a ministry in Timbuktu since 2001 and with the Gao Evangelical Church since 2004, also said that church and Christian property in Timbuktu and Gao has either been looted or destroyed.
All across northern Mali, the humanitarian situation is dire (ICRC 25 May 2012). Many Christians have fled south to Bamako, the capital, where they are living as refugees. Food stocks are low.
------------------------------------------
An agreement, A Split and The Reality
------------------------------------------
An Agreement
On 26 May, the avowedly secular Tuareg nationalist group, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), signed a protocol agreement with Islamic jihadists Ansar Dine, to join forces for the implementation of an independent Islamic state.
CNN reports: "The agreement between the secular Tuareg and the Islamists comes after weeks of sometimes heated discussions between two movements, separated both in their objectives and ideologies. While the MNLA is fighting for an independent Azawad, Ansar Dine's main objective is to impose Sharia law in all of Mali.
"In the besieged towns, drinking, smoking, listening to music, watching soccer on TV and playing video games have been banned in what now seems to be a preparation for the creation of an Islamic state."
See: Mali rebel groups join forces, vowing an Islamic state
From Katarina Höije, For CNN, 27 May 2012
A Split
Only 48 hours after the protocol was signed, the deal collapsed, allegedly because the parties could not agree on how strictly to impose Sharia (Islamic) Law.
"We have refused to approve the final statement because it is different from the protocol agreement which we have signed," said Ibrahim Assaley, representing the MNLA. "It is as if they want us to dissolve into Ansar Dine," he complained. "That is unacceptable." (Al Jazeera 31 May)
Moussa Ag Asherif, a fighter close to the leadership of the Ansar Dine, told reporters that Iyad Ag Ghaly -- the shadowy leader of Ansar Dine who is known to have ties to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) -- would travel to Gao on Tuesday morning 29 May "to solve the problem".
The confusion has exposed a split in the MNLA, allegedly between the MNLA's French and Arabic speaking factions.
A statement issued by Hama Ag Mahmoud, a senior MNLA political figure read: "The political wing, the executive wing of the MNLA, faced with the intransigence of Ansar Dine on applying sharia in Azawad and in line with its resolutely secular stance, denounce the accord with this organisation and declare all its dispositions null and void."
Reuters reports: "In an open letter posted on Berber website Tamazgha.fr, the MNLA's communication director Mossa Ag Attaher acknowledged 'a growing malaise' in the ranks of the group linked to a feud between its French-speaking and Arab-speaking factions.
"While Attaher did not elaborate, the linguistic split could partly reflect divisions between those rebels who have remained in the former French colony and those who were based in Libya until the fall of Muammar Gaddafi.
"'The application of sharia and the Arabisation of our people is a grave violation of our culture and identity,' he said of a region in which nomadic Tuaregs have co-existed with other ethnic groups and where moderate Islam is widely practised.
"But a senior military official for Ansar Dine contacted in the northern city of Gao said the well-armed group continued to apply the agreement.
"The pact signed by the MNLA and Ansar Dine is irrevocable", Oumar Ould Hamama told Reuters by telephone from the northern city of Gao."The views of a few individuals within the MNLA cannot put this fusion in doubt. In any case, [the reality is] we are the majority in control of all three of Mali's northern regions."
See: Mali Tuareg leaders call off Islamist pact
Reuters, Friday 1 June 2012.
According to the most recent news, the rebels are working towards establishing a ruling council and a government of national unity.
The MNLA issued a statement in the northern city of Gao that said: 'The NMLA will put in place a provisional council that will lead the country in the coming period and will work to put in place a government of national unity'."
The statement said that the agreement signed between the two groups on May 26 "is being studied by the two parties and a commission is going to be appointed in order to treat the points of divergence." (Associated Press, 4 June)
The Reality
The reality on the ground is that al-Qaeda-linked Ansar Dine is stronger and in control; Sharia is being forcefully applied; and Northern Mali threatens to become a safe-haven for terrorist and a launch-pad for jihad.
In late May, the rebels seized a key underground weapons and ammunition depot of the Malian Army in Gao. A regional security source confirmed the seizure, saying the vast cache of weapons will greatly boost al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb's (AQIM's) striking power, adding that the group "is today more armed than the combined armies of Mali and Burkina Faso".
See: Al-Qaeda branch seizes key Mali arms depot as crisis deepens
By Serge Daniel (AFP) 27 May 2012
Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, a Mauritanian diplomat who has been a United Nations envoy in both West Africa and Somalia comments on the situation in Northern Mali: "We are in an early stage of Afghanistan and Somalia. There is no doubt in my mind."
Reporting for Reuters from Dakar, Senegal, David Lewis writes: "Ould-Abdallah and a swelling chorus of security experts point to an influx of foreign fighters, a debilitating rivalry between neighboring states, and steady flow of illicit funds as making Mali and the wider Saharan zone the next one to watch.
"In former colonial power France, the new defense minister warned last week of a 'west African Afghanistan' in Mali.
"The rebels' seizure of three major airstrips in the north - near the towns of Gao, Timbuktu and Tessalit - means that, in the absence of a functioning Malian air force, they can ferry in everything from drugs and weapons to yet more foreign fighters. . .
"Witnesses say the Islamists are better-resourced and more heavily armed than the Tuareg separatists . . . [a reality that is] allowing them to shunt the MNLA aside and take effective control on their own of towns across northern Mali."
See: Analysis: Mali: the world's next jihadi launchpad?
By David Lewis
DAKAR | Mon Jun 4, 2012
One wonders, what Al Qaeda's strategic priorities might be now that it has a solid foothold in Northern Mali through the extremely well armed Ansar Dine. Of one thing we may be certain: that jihad in Africa is about to go up a notch to become far more threatening and far more destructive.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
MALI: Christians flee as jihadists seize control of north
What started out as a violent, destructive and bloody Tuareg rebellion in pursuit of an independent Tuareg homeland has ended in Islamic conquest and the spectre of al Qaeda.
On Thursday 5 April, after three months of fighting, the main ethnic Tuareg rebel group -- the National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad (NMLA) -- announced a ceasefire. Having seized the capitals of the three main northern provinces in three days -- Kidal, on 30 March; Gao, on 31 March; and Timbuktu, on 1 April (see map) -- the NMLA declared it had achieved its military goal.
See: Tuareg rebels in Mali declare cease-fire, end of military operations
By Associated Press, Published: April 5
Despite having fought alongside the professedly secular and nationalistic NMLA supposedly in support of Tuareg independence, Ansar Dine -- an Islamist group led by Iyad ag Ghali, a Tuareg who led a major rebellion in the 1990s -- has since supplanted the NMLA, hoisted the black flag of al-Qaeda and declared the imposition of Sharia law.
In a video filmed in Timbuktu and obtained by the AFP news agency and France 2 television, Ansar Dine military chief Omar Hamaha declared: "Our war is a holy war. It’s a legal war in the name of Islam. We are against rebellions. We are against independence. We are against revolutions not in the name of Islam."
See: Tuaregs claim 'independence' from Mali
6 April 2012, Al Jazeera
Film footage on Al Jazeera shows well armed Ansar Dine mujahideen driving a column of machine-gun mounted military vehicles each flying the black flag of al Qaeda. Ansar Dine is also exploiting the chaos of the Tuareg rebellion, of which they were a part, and re-inventing themselves as enforcers of law and order, offering hope to a traumatised people.
See: Tuareg groups disagree on objectives
-- a 2.35minute video news clip by Al Jazeera, 9 Apr 2012
Separatist MNLA declares Azawad independence, while Ansar Dine group wants to impose Islamic law.
According to reports, some 100 Nigerian Boko Haram militants who assisted in the capture of Gao have also established a presence there. Sources report that there are four distinct flags flying in Gao: the NMLA, Boko Haram, Ansar Dine, and Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), and while the NMLA are nowhere to be seen, having been pushed to the periphery, there are plenty of armed, bearded Salafis.
See: Mali rebels declare independence in north as fears grow over extremist links
by Afua Hirsch, West Africa correspondent, the Guardian, 6 April 2012
DEVASTATION WIDESPREAD
IRIN, a service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, reports (3 April), "Malians in the northern towns of Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu are hiding in their homes in fear following the weekend takeover by rebel groups, during which hospitals, health clinics, government buildings, and most NGO and UN offices and warehouses were looted, and in some cases destroyed, leaving the bulk of humanitarian operations suspended."
"Issa Mahamar Touré, president of the youth association in Gao, said total chaos reigned after widespread looting of government offices, NGOs, banks and hospitals in his town. 'People are hiding at their homes unable to leave… no trucks are arriving with further supplies... What will we do when our stocks run out? The hospital is closed and doctors have fled… It is complete desolation, despair… We can only turn to the international community for help.'"
Julia McDade, head of the Malian office of Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), which works with partners on agriculture projects and women’s rights in Timbuktu and Gao, told IRIN: "'Everyone [in Gao] is in hiding, everyone's vehicles have been stolen… every single office has been ransacked.'
"All the aid agencies IRIN spoke to have had their equipment stolen and have been forced to suspend operations, in the middle of a food emergency. Offices of the World Food Programme (WFP), which provides the bulk of food aid in the north were looted, and the organization has halted its activities in Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu, as well as the central town of Mopti, according to its head, Nancy Walters.
"Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Oxfam, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) all repeated the same story. 'Our cars, aid materials, offices and staff residences were all looted [in Gao],' Jurg Eglin, head of ICRC for Niger and Mali told IRIN. 'We are still trying to take stock of what we have lost.'
Caritas Mali reported that its local office in Gao in northern Mali was destroyed along with the local church which served Gao's 200-strong Catholic community.
IRIN also reports that according to sources, rapes are taking place in Timbuktu and Gao. "An NGO trainer in Gao, Adama Konipo, told IRIN he had seen rebels taking women away from the health centre, 'to who knows where', in recent days. After seeing one young woman in tears in the street, family members told him she had been raped by five MNLA soldiers. Others reported two rebels raping a young woman in the market place, firing their guns when anyone dared to approach them. 'It is impossible for any young women to leave their houses for fear,' Konipo told IRIN."
See also: Islamist Rebel Faction Imposes Sharia In The North Of Mali
by Soumaila T. Diarra (Bamako), April 06, 2012, Inter Press Service
ANSAR DINE TO THE RESCUE
Reporting from Bamako, Mali, for Associated Press (AP), Martin Vogl and Rukmini Callimachi spoke to Dramane Maiga, an employee of a transport company. He told them that the Islamists have been handing out a hotline number and encouraging residents to call if they are in trouble, apparently in an effort to instil confidence in the local population.
Maiga told AP that on Sunday 8 April he was on a bus loaded with residents attempting to flee Gao when it was ambushed by Tuareg fighters from the NMLA intending to rob the passengers. The passengers, however, got busy calling the Ansar Dine hotline and in less than 30 minutes, Ansar Dine mujahideen had arrived. The bus passengers then watched on in horror as the jihadists slit the throat of one Tuareg gunman, to cries of "Allahu Akbar".
See: Witness: Islamist fighters execute Tuareg in Mali
By Martin Vogl and Rukmini Callimachi in Bamako, Mali,
Associated Press, 9 April 2012
But according to IRIN -- and contrary to the footage on Al Jazeera -- the Islamists do not have widespread support amongst the population. “'We are against this takeover', said Amouhani Touré, a teacher who had just fled the town [of Timbuktu]. 'These Islamists want to impose their rules on us… We’re in the 21st century, you can’t impose Sharia on peaceful citizens. The authorities, if we have any still, must fight these Islamists with all their might… Timbuktu is a holy site, a tourist town; UNESCO-protected, we will say no to all forms of separatism.'”
The representative for Timbuktu in Mali’s Parliament, El Hadji Baba Haidara, also lamented the takeover. “Why do they want to Islamize us?” he said, observing that the city has been Muslim since the 12th century. “And now these Islamists want to teach us to pray! In fact, Timbuktu is a victim of its name and celebrity: for the rebels, it’s a symbol that must be taken in order to be seen. I am not O.K. with Sharia in Timbuktu. For us, it’s extremism."
CHRISTIANS FLEE AFTER BEING TARGETED
Driven out by the devastating violence, but especially by the Islamic threat, virtually the entire Christian population of northern Mali has been forced to flee for their lives.
The Guardian reports: "A source who fled the rebel-held town of Gao said that extremists were heavily involved in the advance and were now targeting the Christian minority in northern towns.
"'The rebels have sacked the church in Gao, burning the contents whilst crying Allah Akhbar,' the source told the Guardian. 'At a rebel barricade outside Gao, the bodies of people who have been slaughtered were laid out on the ground.'
"In a further report, which could not be verified, the Guardian learned that the Christian prefect of the town of Bourem had also been killed along with his relatives. 'The prefect was slaughtered at a checkpoint along with his family,' a source said. 'Christians here are now living in real fear.'"
See: Mali rebels declare independence in north as fears grow over extremist links
by Afua Hirsch, West Africa correspondent, the Guardian, 6 April 2012
Reporting from Bamako, Mali, Rukmini Callimachi reports for Associated Press that more than 90 per cent of Timbuktu's roughly 300 Christians have fled. Baptist Pastor Nock Ag Info Yattara, who has fled to Bourem, reports that not one of the 205 people in his congregation, which has worshipped in Timbuktu since the 1950s, remains. While Ansar Dine, which has established itself in the city's principle military camp, is controlling downtown Timbuktu, , the NMLA is being forced to camp out at the airport.
"'What I deplore,' laments Ousmane Halle, the mayor of Timbuktu, 'is the departure of the Christian community. Many said to me that they are obliged to leave. And they are right. I cannot guarantee their safety. And these are people that have lived side by side with us for centuries.'
See: Islamists impose sharia in Mali's Timbuktu
By Rukmini Callimachi, Associated Press, 4 April 2012
NO EASY FIX
This is a situation for which there will be no easy fix.
(For prayer points see: RLPB 154. Mali: Christians flee imposition of Sharia, 11 April 2012)
Background:
The nomadic Tuareg controlled the caravan trade routes through the Sahara for thousands of years until recent trends reversed their fortunes.
Firstly, when Mali and Niger declared independence in 1960 they claimed territory that until that time had been the Tuareg's domain. At that point, the Tuareg began rebelling against the governments of Mali and Niger.
Then, in the 1970s and 1980s, drought accelerated the process of desertification, forcing many Tuareg to migrate north into Libya and Algeria. At the same time, the trends of rapid population growth and urbanisation changed the landscape considerably with the Tuareg powerless to stop their traditional lands being acquired by non-Tuareg farmers and developers. Further to this, as maritime trade increased in prominence the Tuareg were robbed of their traditional livelihood, forcing the nomadic Tuareg to diversify -- mostly into arms, drugs and hostage trafficking, activities that have brought them into contact with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Meanwhile, many Tuareg in Libya received military training and were incorporated into Gaddafi's Islamic Legion. (These were purely business arrangements and had nothing to do with ideology.)
In the late 1980s, the governments of Mali and Niger seduced many Tuareg back home with promises of assistance. Those who returned were now well armed, well trained militarily and linked through "business" (not ideology) to AQIM. When the promised assistance did not materialise and the northern regions remained as poor, under-serviced and marginalised as ever, the Tuareg rebelled again -- in Mali in 1992; and in Niger in 1995. French and US-mediated talks promised decentralised government and real assistance, including the incorporation of Tuareg fighters into the military. But once again, the assistance never materialised and resources remained concentrated in the south. Tensions rose.
From around the turn of the century, in order to prevent the impoverished northern regions becoming an al Qaeda sanctuary, France and the US launched anti-terrorism initiatives, offering advanced military training to Tuaregs so they could combat Islamic jihadists, including al Qaeda. Consequently, when the Tuareg rebelled again in 2007, they were more sophisticated than ever. Peace was brokered in 2009, but it was fragile. The rebellion's leader, Ibrahim Ag Bahanga, fled to Libya.
In August 2011, Ibrahim Ag Bahanga re-emerged in northern Mali. He vowed over satellite phone to renew the Tuareg rebellion. Without hours he was dead -- most probably assassinated by a US-trained Malian counterterrorism unit. Ibrahim Ag Bahanga had been among some 800 Tuaregs who fought as pro-Gaddafi mercenaries in the Libyan conflict. As Gaddafi's fortunes reversed, the Tuareg, aware their salaries would soon end, simply packed up and returned to Mali bringing with them large quantities of weapons, ammunitions and military vehicles stolen from Gaddafi's arsenals.
It was this influx of a large number of cashed-up, well-armed and well-trained fighters, led by a former Libyan army colonel, Ag Mohamed Najem, that re-energised the long-simmering Tuareg insurgency against the Malian government. These are the Tuareg who formed the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) and met with the government of Mali in November to let them know they were rejecting the authority of the parliamentarians and intending to have their own state.
And as Stratfor Security Weekly reports (2 Feb), Najem is not the only NMLA leader with significant military experience. "Experienced defectors from the Malian army including Lt. Col. Ag Mbarek Aky and Col. Ag Bamoussa reportedly have bolstered the organization. The presence of experienced military leaders gives the MNLA an increased ability to organize and mobilize its units across a broad swath of territory in northern Mali."
See: Mali Besieged by Fighters Fleeing Libya
By Scott Stewart, February 2, 2012
Stratfor, Security Weekly
For more background, see also:
The Tuaregs: From African Nomads to Smugglers and Mercenaries
Stratfor 2 Feb 2012
Other helpful and interesting articles:
Who are the Tuareg rebels conquering northern Mali?
3 April 2012 France 24
Tribulation in Timbuktu
The Tuareg people are profiting from the post-Gaddafi power shifts across the Saharan sands, contends Gamal Nkrumah
Al-Ahram, 5 - 11 April 2012, Issue No. 1092
Tuaregs 'all about securing power' in Mali's north
Deutsche Welle spoke with Dr. Julia Leininger, the Africa coordinator in the "Governance, Statehood, Security" department at the German Development Institute (DIE) about the Tuaregs and their aims. 6 April 2012
The Tuareg Denominator
By Jay Radzinski, Middle East Online 16 Feb 2012
New north Mali Arab force seeks to "defend" Timbuktu
Bate Felix and Adama Diarra, Reuters April 10, 2012
BAMAKO | Mon Apr 9, 2012
Foreign Policy: The Mess In Mali
by Gregory Mann, NPR 10 April 2012
On Thursday 5 April, after three months of fighting, the main ethnic Tuareg rebel group -- the National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad (NMLA) -- announced a ceasefire. Having seized the capitals of the three main northern provinces in three days -- Kidal, on 30 March; Gao, on 31 March; and Timbuktu, on 1 April (see map) -- the NMLA declared it had achieved its military goal.
See: Tuareg rebels in Mali declare cease-fire, end of military operations
By Associated Press, Published: April 5
Despite having fought alongside the professedly secular and nationalistic NMLA supposedly in support of Tuareg independence, Ansar Dine -- an Islamist group led by Iyad ag Ghali, a Tuareg who led a major rebellion in the 1990s -- has since supplanted the NMLA, hoisted the black flag of al-Qaeda and declared the imposition of Sharia law.
In a video filmed in Timbuktu and obtained by the AFP news agency and France 2 television, Ansar Dine military chief Omar Hamaha declared: "Our war is a holy war. It’s a legal war in the name of Islam. We are against rebellions. We are against independence. We are against revolutions not in the name of Islam."
See: Tuaregs claim 'independence' from Mali
6 April 2012, Al Jazeera
Film footage on Al Jazeera shows well armed Ansar Dine mujahideen driving a column of machine-gun mounted military vehicles each flying the black flag of al Qaeda. Ansar Dine is also exploiting the chaos of the Tuareg rebellion, of which they were a part, and re-inventing themselves as enforcers of law and order, offering hope to a traumatised people.
See: Tuareg groups disagree on objectives
-- a 2.35minute video news clip by Al Jazeera, 9 Apr 2012
Separatist MNLA declares Azawad independence, while Ansar Dine group wants to impose Islamic law.
According to reports, some 100 Nigerian Boko Haram militants who assisted in the capture of Gao have also established a presence there. Sources report that there are four distinct flags flying in Gao: the NMLA, Boko Haram, Ansar Dine, and Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), and while the NMLA are nowhere to be seen, having been pushed to the periphery, there are plenty of armed, bearded Salafis.
See: Mali rebels declare independence in north as fears grow over extremist links
by Afua Hirsch, West Africa correspondent, the Guardian, 6 April 2012
DEVASTATION WIDESPREAD
IRIN, a service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, reports (3 April), "Malians in the northern towns of Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu are hiding in their homes in fear following the weekend takeover by rebel groups, during which hospitals, health clinics, government buildings, and most NGO and UN offices and warehouses were looted, and in some cases destroyed, leaving the bulk of humanitarian operations suspended."
"Issa Mahamar Touré, president of the youth association in Gao, said total chaos reigned after widespread looting of government offices, NGOs, banks and hospitals in his town. 'People are hiding at their homes unable to leave… no trucks are arriving with further supplies... What will we do when our stocks run out? The hospital is closed and doctors have fled… It is complete desolation, despair… We can only turn to the international community for help.'"
Julia McDade, head of the Malian office of Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), which works with partners on agriculture projects and women’s rights in Timbuktu and Gao, told IRIN: "'Everyone [in Gao] is in hiding, everyone's vehicles have been stolen… every single office has been ransacked.'
"All the aid agencies IRIN spoke to have had their equipment stolen and have been forced to suspend operations, in the middle of a food emergency. Offices of the World Food Programme (WFP), which provides the bulk of food aid in the north were looted, and the organization has halted its activities in Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu, as well as the central town of Mopti, according to its head, Nancy Walters.
"Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Oxfam, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) all repeated the same story. 'Our cars, aid materials, offices and staff residences were all looted [in Gao],' Jurg Eglin, head of ICRC for Niger and Mali told IRIN. 'We are still trying to take stock of what we have lost.'
Caritas Mali reported that its local office in Gao in northern Mali was destroyed along with the local church which served Gao's 200-strong Catholic community.
IRIN also reports that according to sources, rapes are taking place in Timbuktu and Gao. "An NGO trainer in Gao, Adama Konipo, told IRIN he had seen rebels taking women away from the health centre, 'to who knows where', in recent days. After seeing one young woman in tears in the street, family members told him she had been raped by five MNLA soldiers. Others reported two rebels raping a young woman in the market place, firing their guns when anyone dared to approach them. 'It is impossible for any young women to leave their houses for fear,' Konipo told IRIN."
See also: Islamist Rebel Faction Imposes Sharia In The North Of Mali
by Soumaila T. Diarra (Bamako), April 06, 2012, Inter Press Service
ANSAR DINE TO THE RESCUE
Reporting from Bamako, Mali, for Associated Press (AP), Martin Vogl and Rukmini Callimachi spoke to Dramane Maiga, an employee of a transport company. He told them that the Islamists have been handing out a hotline number and encouraging residents to call if they are in trouble, apparently in an effort to instil confidence in the local population.
Maiga told AP that on Sunday 8 April he was on a bus loaded with residents attempting to flee Gao when it was ambushed by Tuareg fighters from the NMLA intending to rob the passengers. The passengers, however, got busy calling the Ansar Dine hotline and in less than 30 minutes, Ansar Dine mujahideen had arrived. The bus passengers then watched on in horror as the jihadists slit the throat of one Tuareg gunman, to cries of "Allahu Akbar".
See: Witness: Islamist fighters execute Tuareg in Mali
By Martin Vogl and Rukmini Callimachi in Bamako, Mali,
Associated Press, 9 April 2012
But according to IRIN -- and contrary to the footage on Al Jazeera -- the Islamists do not have widespread support amongst the population. “'We are against this takeover', said Amouhani Touré, a teacher who had just fled the town [of Timbuktu]. 'These Islamists want to impose their rules on us… We’re in the 21st century, you can’t impose Sharia on peaceful citizens. The authorities, if we have any still, must fight these Islamists with all their might… Timbuktu is a holy site, a tourist town; UNESCO-protected, we will say no to all forms of separatism.'”
The representative for Timbuktu in Mali’s Parliament, El Hadji Baba Haidara, also lamented the takeover. “Why do they want to Islamize us?” he said, observing that the city has been Muslim since the 12th century. “And now these Islamists want to teach us to pray! In fact, Timbuktu is a victim of its name and celebrity: for the rebels, it’s a symbol that must be taken in order to be seen. I am not O.K. with Sharia in Timbuktu. For us, it’s extremism."
CHRISTIANS FLEE AFTER BEING TARGETED
Driven out by the devastating violence, but especially by the Islamic threat, virtually the entire Christian population of northern Mali has been forced to flee for their lives.
The Guardian reports: "A source who fled the rebel-held town of Gao said that extremists were heavily involved in the advance and were now targeting the Christian minority in northern towns.
"'The rebels have sacked the church in Gao, burning the contents whilst crying Allah Akhbar,' the source told the Guardian. 'At a rebel barricade outside Gao, the bodies of people who have been slaughtered were laid out on the ground.'
"In a further report, which could not be verified, the Guardian learned that the Christian prefect of the town of Bourem had also been killed along with his relatives. 'The prefect was slaughtered at a checkpoint along with his family,' a source said. 'Christians here are now living in real fear.'"
See: Mali rebels declare independence in north as fears grow over extremist links
by Afua Hirsch, West Africa correspondent, the Guardian, 6 April 2012
Reporting from Bamako, Mali, Rukmini Callimachi reports for Associated Press that more than 90 per cent of Timbuktu's roughly 300 Christians have fled. Baptist Pastor Nock Ag Info Yattara, who has fled to Bourem, reports that not one of the 205 people in his congregation, which has worshipped in Timbuktu since the 1950s, remains. While Ansar Dine, which has established itself in the city's principle military camp, is controlling downtown Timbuktu, , the NMLA is being forced to camp out at the airport.
"'What I deplore,' laments Ousmane Halle, the mayor of Timbuktu, 'is the departure of the Christian community. Many said to me that they are obliged to leave. And they are right. I cannot guarantee their safety. And these are people that have lived side by side with us for centuries.'
See: Islamists impose sharia in Mali's Timbuktu
By Rukmini Callimachi, Associated Press, 4 April 2012
NO EASY FIX
This is a situation for which there will be no easy fix.
(For prayer points see: RLPB 154. Mali: Christians flee imposition of Sharia, 11 April 2012)
Background:
The nomadic Tuareg controlled the caravan trade routes through the Sahara for thousands of years until recent trends reversed their fortunes.
Firstly, when Mali and Niger declared independence in 1960 they claimed territory that until that time had been the Tuareg's domain. At that point, the Tuareg began rebelling against the governments of Mali and Niger.
Then, in the 1970s and 1980s, drought accelerated the process of desertification, forcing many Tuareg to migrate north into Libya and Algeria. At the same time, the trends of rapid population growth and urbanisation changed the landscape considerably with the Tuareg powerless to stop their traditional lands being acquired by non-Tuareg farmers and developers. Further to this, as maritime trade increased in prominence the Tuareg were robbed of their traditional livelihood, forcing the nomadic Tuareg to diversify -- mostly into arms, drugs and hostage trafficking, activities that have brought them into contact with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Meanwhile, many Tuareg in Libya received military training and were incorporated into Gaddafi's Islamic Legion. (These were purely business arrangements and had nothing to do with ideology.)
In the late 1980s, the governments of Mali and Niger seduced many Tuareg back home with promises of assistance. Those who returned were now well armed, well trained militarily and linked through "business" (not ideology) to AQIM. When the promised assistance did not materialise and the northern regions remained as poor, under-serviced and marginalised as ever, the Tuareg rebelled again -- in Mali in 1992; and in Niger in 1995. French and US-mediated talks promised decentralised government and real assistance, including the incorporation of Tuareg fighters into the military. But once again, the assistance never materialised and resources remained concentrated in the south. Tensions rose.
From around the turn of the century, in order to prevent the impoverished northern regions becoming an al Qaeda sanctuary, France and the US launched anti-terrorism initiatives, offering advanced military training to Tuaregs so they could combat Islamic jihadists, including al Qaeda. Consequently, when the Tuareg rebelled again in 2007, they were more sophisticated than ever. Peace was brokered in 2009, but it was fragile. The rebellion's leader, Ibrahim Ag Bahanga, fled to Libya.
In August 2011, Ibrahim Ag Bahanga re-emerged in northern Mali. He vowed over satellite phone to renew the Tuareg rebellion. Without hours he was dead -- most probably assassinated by a US-trained Malian counterterrorism unit. Ibrahim Ag Bahanga had been among some 800 Tuaregs who fought as pro-Gaddafi mercenaries in the Libyan conflict. As Gaddafi's fortunes reversed, the Tuareg, aware their salaries would soon end, simply packed up and returned to Mali bringing with them large quantities of weapons, ammunitions and military vehicles stolen from Gaddafi's arsenals.
It was this influx of a large number of cashed-up, well-armed and well-trained fighters, led by a former Libyan army colonel, Ag Mohamed Najem, that re-energised the long-simmering Tuareg insurgency against the Malian government. These are the Tuareg who formed the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) and met with the government of Mali in November to let them know they were rejecting the authority of the parliamentarians and intending to have their own state.
And as Stratfor Security Weekly reports (2 Feb), Najem is not the only NMLA leader with significant military experience. "Experienced defectors from the Malian army including Lt. Col. Ag Mbarek Aky and Col. Ag Bamoussa reportedly have bolstered the organization. The presence of experienced military leaders gives the MNLA an increased ability to organize and mobilize its units across a broad swath of territory in northern Mali."
See: Mali Besieged by Fighters Fleeing Libya
By Scott Stewart, February 2, 2012
Stratfor, Security Weekly
For more background, see also:
The Tuaregs: From African Nomads to Smugglers and Mercenaries
Stratfor 2 Feb 2012
Other helpful and interesting articles:
Who are the Tuareg rebels conquering northern Mali?
3 April 2012 France 24
Tribulation in Timbuktu
The Tuareg people are profiting from the post-Gaddafi power shifts across the Saharan sands, contends Gamal Nkrumah
Al-Ahram, 5 - 11 April 2012, Issue No. 1092
Tuaregs 'all about securing power' in Mali's north
Deutsche Welle spoke with Dr. Julia Leininger, the Africa coordinator in the "Governance, Statehood, Security" department at the German Development Institute (DIE) about the Tuaregs and their aims. 6 April 2012
The Tuareg Denominator
By Jay Radzinski, Middle East Online 16 Feb 2012
New north Mali Arab force seeks to "defend" Timbuktu
Bate Felix and Adama Diarra, Reuters April 10, 2012
BAMAKO | Mon Apr 9, 2012
Foreign Policy: The Mess In Mali
by Gregory Mann, NPR 10 April 2012