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30/04/2012

Tuareg rebellion and Al Qaeda Role (DIEEEO37-2012)

Mouvement National Pour la Libération de l’Azawad (Azawad being the name they give to Northern Mali) made up of some two thousand insurgents announced the past 8 April the “liberation” for the north of Mali, territory that the tuaregs claim.This separatist movement, although it is alien to the claims of the Islamists of Ansar Dine led by Lyad Ag Ghali (known by his mediation in the kidnappings of Western cooperants), shares with the latter the fight against the central power and in favour of Northen Mali’s secession, as seen during last month.
This accidental "alliance" between the Islamist movement and the secular one have sparked suspicions inside the country and across the the neighboring countries about the existing links between the Tuareg’s demands and the terrorists of AQMI. In the band Sahel-Sahariana these kinds of criminal groups freely travel withouth problems. The North of Mali is a lawless territory. A failed state, often victims of humanitarian crisis. For theses reasons, the insurgent army have carried out a full stategy to save his inhospitable region. Azawad do not only include tuaregs, also the Arab community, songhais and small group of peulhs.
The azawíes justify his intervention arguing that the Tuareg’s community have been long abandoned by the Mali’s Governement from the 1960s. The insurgents' goal is to liberate the lands from Malian occupation to establish again the confidence between the diferents communities as well as the basis for a durable peace and safety for the populations.
The question is now how these rebels are going to reach their political and social objectives considering the fact that islamists aim to take full control of the situation and establish a religious state as well as a terrorist group (AQIM) that advocates the Holy War against the West.

Author: Beatriz Mesa García

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Tuareg rebellion and Al Qaeda Role
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