Fighters from the Movement of Azawad near Kidal, northern Mali, on September 28, 2016 (French)

After more than 6 decades of rebellion and confrontation with the central government in Bamako in order to establish an independent state in northern Mali, the Azwadians left the Kidal region, leaving their strongholds to the Malian armed forces.

The Amazighs of Mali had been able to seize the Kidal region since 2012, but the ruling Transitional Military Council in Bamako announced its intention to regain all the lands, preferred military confrontation, and began launching intense campaigns, until it entered Kidal, declaring a victory that the previous military and civilian regimes in the state of Mali had been unable to achieve. .

The Azawadian community in Mali consists of multiple races that combine Tuaregs, Arabs, Fulani, and Songhai. The Tuareg represent 35% of the Azawadians, while the Arabs represent 25%. The number of Azawadians is about 4 million people, i.e. 10% of the total population of the State of Mali, which numbers about 22 people. Two million.

The area of ​​the Azawad regions (Kidal-Timbuktu-Gao) is 822 thousand square kilometers, or 66% of the total area of ​​the State of Mali, which amounts to one million and 240 thousand square kilometers.

The beginning of the rebellion

After Mali's independence from France in 1960, the northern regions remained isolated from economic and social development, so the Azawadian movements revolted against the government in Bamako, and took up arms in 1963, to demand an independent state with Kidal as its capital.

The Kidal revolution was based on the principle of integration of the Amazigh race in the Sahara, which was divided by the French colonizers between Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso. However, the regime of former Malian President Modibo Keita was strict and cruel towards the separatists, as he confronted them with the most severe types of repression, until he imposed his control over the region in 1964.

In a study entitled “The Origins of War in Azawad,” researcher Abdullah Bouchartar attributes the causes of the Azawad Revolution to historical, political, and economic factors.

He believes that the Modibo Keita regime wanted to build a state that did not respect pluralism and forms of diversity, so it clashed with the Tuareg, who did not know how to submit to central authority. His government also marginalized the northern regions far from the capital, and did not work to create a development renaissance in them.

The Sahrawi Berbers did not find support from Algeria in their revolution demanding the establishment of a state in 1963, even though they helped in the Algerian revolution. Algeria’s position is due to the friendly relations between Ben Bella and Modibo Keita and their sharing of socialist ideas at the time.

Drought and diaspora

Following the violent repression carried out by Modibo Keita's forces, and after the severe drought that struck the Sahel region in 1970, the regions of Azawad in northern Mali witnessed mass migrations, most of them towards Libya and Algeria, as they relied for their livelihood on rain-fed agriculture and livestock raising.

The migration of the Azawad towards Libya and Algeria coincided with the late leader Muammar Gaddafi’s accession to power in Tripoli in 1969, and he recruited many of them into militias affiliated with his forces.

The recruits participated in several combat operations, and in different regions such as Chad and Western Sahara.

When the siege was imposed on Libya due to the Lockerbie issue in 1988, Gaddafi’s influence in the region declined, and the Azawads began to return to Mali in 1990.

Confrontations and treaties

After the return of the fighters from Libya in 1991, new waves of armed conflict and demands for independence from the state of Mali began. The elements who were trained in Libya inflicted heavy losses on the Malian army, so the government of former president General Moussa Traoré was convinced of the necessity of dialogue and listening to the demands of the revolutionaries, and concluded an agreement with the separatists in Tamanrasset. In Algeria in December 1991, the government pledged to allocate 47.3% of the development budget to the Azawad provinces, integrate fighters into the army, and work to implement a decentralized system that allows for a degree of self-administration.

As a result of the aforementioned agreement, the Tuareg revolutionaries pledged to abandon weapons and military confrontation with the central government in Bamako, and to abandon the demand for secession.

But this agreement did not last long, as confrontations between the two parties began in the same year, and the army was accused of carrying out many massacres among the residents of the north.

At that time, Algeria and Mauritania sought to bring the parties together again in Algeria in 1992, and the charter known as the “National Treaty” was signed.

In 1994, fighting broke out between the two sides again, but they returned to the terms of the “National Treaty” agreement again.

In 2006, a group of Tuareg called the "May 23 Democratic Alliance" launched attacks against the military bases of the Malian army in Kidal and Minak, and confrontations began with the government until a peace agreement was signed in Kidal in 2009 under Libyan sponsorship.

Unilateral declaration of independence

When Gaddafi's regime fell, many of the Tuareg who were fighting in his army returned to their original regions in Kidal and Timbuktu, and participated in establishing the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad.

On April 6, 2012, the National Movement announced the establishment of an independent state in northern Mali, and took full control of the cities of Kidal, Timbuktu, and Gao, but the neighboring countries did not recognize the Azwadians of their nascent state.

In January 2013, French forces, with the help of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), began a military operation to thwart the establishment of the state of Azawad, regain control over the northern regions, and expel armed movements labeled as terrorists after they helped Tuareg militants control northern Mali.

After months of field confrontation between French and African forces on one side, and Azawadi militants on the other, the Malian army was able to extend its influence over military bases and major residential areas, but the attacks did not stop between the two sides.

Algiers Agreement 2015

The secession battles left many human casualties, causing the displacement of 158,000 people and the displacement of more than 230,000 citizens, but the warring parties reached a ceasefire in February 2015, under the auspices of the United Nations and Algeria.

On March 1, 2015, a “peace and reconciliation” agreement was signed in the capital, Algiers, between the Malian government and the Azawad Movement Group: the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, the Supreme Council for the Unity of Azawad, the Arab Movement of Azawad, the Coordination of the People in Azawad, and the Coordination of Resistance Fronts and Movements. Nationalism.

Under the Algiers Agreement, the parties tended to peace, work on stability, and the return of refugees and displaced persons to their places.

The authorities in Bamako did not interfere in the affairs of Kidal, and left its political and social affairs under the management of the Azawadian movements.

The military and breaking the agreement

After the military coup led by Colonel Asimi Goeta in 2021, the political and security situation changed, and a new political map was formed in the region according to which the balance of power changed, as the French and international forces that were supervising the peace process in the northern regions, which are the strongholds of the Azawad rebels and Islamic militants, were expelled.

At the end of 2022, relations between the central government and the Coordination of Azawad Movements became tense, until the latter closed its office in Bamako, considering it to be in a state of open war.

In September 2023, the confrontation broke out again between the Transitional Military Council in Kidal and the political and military movements.

In a speech broadcast on Malian television in November 2023, Colonel Goita said that all Malian territory must be controlled.

After fierce battles in which the Russian Wagner Group participated alongside the Malian army, the head of the Transitional Military Council in Mali announced on November 14, 2023 the recovery of the city of Kidal, which had been controlled by the Azawadians since 2012.

Has the dream of the state ended?

Immediately after government forces took control of Kidal, the presidency of the military junta issued a decree appointing one of the Azwad Tuareg sons as governor of the city, General Haj Ag Gamou, who previously worked as Inspector General of the Armed Forces, and has extensive experience in the battlefields and fighting armed groups.

In January 2024, the Malian government announced its withdrawal from the 2015 Algiers Agreement, considering that it gave quasi-autonomy to the Azawadian movements, and announced that it would carry out internal dialogue and reconciliation without the interference of external parties, stressing its determination to maintain the unity of the Malian territories.

In statements by the head of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad on the X platform, Bilal Ag Cherif said, “The control of the Malian army and Wagner’s mercenaries happened, but it will be followed by events and events.”

Ag Sherif added that the Azawadians will not surrender and they have a long time to show their will and victory, and that they are determined to defend their existence.

In a statement to Al Jazeera Net, the director of Radio Sahara International, Mohamed Sid Ahmed, said that regaining the city of Kidal is important for the government in Bamako in proving its legitimacy, and that the appointment of a Tuareg resident as governor of the Azawad region is considered a reassuring message to the population in order to circumvent the directions of the central government.

Ould Sid Ahmed believes that if the government works to create a development renaissance in the northern regions, this will contribute to stability and move away from the option of wars and their tragedies.

Source: Al Jazeera