Abstract
This chapter provides a contextualized overview of Tuareg separatism and the violence that has accompanied it in Mali. The chapter sketches key episodes and developments in the conflict between the Malian state and Tuareg separatist nationalists and outlines Tuareg political goals and internal dynamics. The chapter examines the impact on Tuareg separatism of the presence of international Jihadi-Salafist movements in the region and the resulting intrusion of the so-called War on Terror (Overseas Contingency Operations) during the past decade.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Ibn Hauqal (1964).
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
Olivier de Sardan (1976)
- 5.
Berge (2000).
- 6.
- 7.
Aouad-Badoual (1993).
- 8.
Blanguernon (1983).
- 9.
- 10.
Lecocq (2003).
- 11.
- 12.
Badi (2010).
- 13.
- 14.
- 15.
- 16.
Fluchard (1995).
- 17.
Lecocq (2010).
- 18.
Boilley (1999).
- 19.
Kaufmann (1964).
- 20.
Lecocq (2010).
- 21.
- 22.
Lecocq (2010).
- 23.
Klute (2013a).
- 24.
Salifou (1993).
- 25.
Boilley (1999).
- 26.
- 27.
A similar name for an independent land, Azawagh, which essentially means the same as Azawad, was adopted by Tuareg movements in Niger in the 1990s. This topographical indicator––the word essentially means “prairie” or “steppe”––would become a strong issue between Tuareg nationalists and Malian patriots. Leo Africanus’ Description of Africa (1550) already indicates the Timbuktu region as Azawad, and from his description, the name found its way to European maps of the late sixteenth century. Yet most Malian patriots deny the term any historical validity and maintain that the only name the region has historically been known under is as part of the Malian empire.
- 28.
Klute and von Trotha (2000).
- 29.
Klute (2009).
- 30.
Klute (1995).
- 31.
Klute (2013a).
- 32.
Poulton and ag Youssouf (1998).
- 33.
Klute (2013a).
- 34.
Klute (2013a).
- 35.
Silberzahn (1995).
- 36.
- 37.
Lecocq (2010).
- 38.
- 39.
Lecocq and Schrijver (2007).
- 40.
The Arabic name of the movement, at-Tanzîm al-Qâeda fi Bilâd al-Maghreb al-Islâmiyya is generally translated as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, abbreviated as AQIM. The correct translation would be The al-Qaeda Chapter in the Islamic Lands of the West. Translating al-Maghreb to “The West,” referring to both North Africa and Western Europe, would do more justice to the global intentions of this movement.
- 41.
Lecocq (2010).
- 42.
Lecocq (2010).
- 43.
For more details on the foundation of the MNA and the profile of its first leaders, see Morgan, Andy (February 6, 2012). “The Causes of the Uprising in Northern Mali”. Think Africa Press. Retrieved February 10, 2012. [http://thinkafricapress.com/mali/causes-uprising-northern-mali-tuareg; last accessed 28/11/2012] and http://www.maliweb.net/category.php?NID=82864 (last accessed November 6, 2011).
- 44.
See also Schomerus and de Vries (2018) in this volume.
- 45.
This was the reasoning of Ahmeyede Ag Ilkamassene, one of MNA’s leading figures, in an article published in its press release website Toumast Press on 23 December 2011 “Azawad, it’s now or never!” [http://toumastpress.com/autres/analyse/196-azawad-maintenant-ou-jamais.html; last accessed November 27, 2012].
- 46.
http://www.mnlamov.net/ (last accessed March 23, 2012).
- 47.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IrCUoBUMWM&context=C461258fADvjVQa1PpcFOiaSz-oISwGTTz67955NwvoxwVCKX6uVw= (last accessed March 23,2012).
- 48.
Klute (2013b).
- 49.
Lecocq and Belalimat (2012).
- 50.
http://www.mnlamov.net/ (last accessed Novermber 28, 2012).
- 51.
Sahelien.com. “Intalla Ag Attaher: « La seule manière de garantir la paix définitive, c’est. la division du pays » December 14, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E34iBeHArd4 (last accessed March 18, 2017).
- 52.
Amnesty International (May 2012).
- 53.
Bellagamba and Klute (2008).
- 54.
No formal statement of this kind has of course ever been issued, but anonymous French diplomats at the EU confirmed so much to one of the authors as well as to some other colleagues.
- 55.
http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/minusma/background.shtml (last accessed May 15, 2017).
- 56.
http://www.eutmmali.eu/ (last accessed July 22, 2013).
- 57.
Lecocq (2013).
- 58.
United Nations Peacekeeping: fatalities by Mission and Appointment Type up to March 31, 2017. http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/fatalities/documents/stats_3mar.pdf (last accessed 05/15/2017).
- 59.
Accord Préliminaire a l’élection présidentielle et aux pourparlers inclusifs de paix au Mali. Ouagadougou June 2013.
- 60.
See Klute (2013b), where global actors in the region, their objectives and ideologies are discussed in more detail.
- 61.
For example, Bøås and Torheim (2013).
- 62.
Despite long months of negotiations in Algiers between the Malian government and movements fighting for independence or autonomy of Northern Mali, they failed to conclude a peace agreement. Under the pressure of the international community, the Malian government and militias of the “platform” loyal to the government’s cause then signed a peace agreement in May 2015, which the movements struggling for independence joined one month later. [http://www.aps.dz/monde/24902-la-signature-de-l-accord-d-alger-par-la-cma-fortement-salu%C3%A9e-%C3%A0-bamako,-hommage-%C3%A0-l-alg%C3%A9rie].
- 63.
Klute (2013a).
- 64.
Jeune Afrique, September 9, 2016.
- 65.
This was recently confirmed by Hassan ag Fagaga, President of the intermediate administrative authorities in the Kidal region in an interview to Jeune Afrique. http://www.tamoudre.org/geostrategie/hassan-ag-fagaga-jihadiste-nest-quun-homme-autres-kalach/ (last accessed May 274, 2017).
- 66.
Lecocq et al. (2013).
- 67.
The most spectacular jihadist strike against “supporters” of foreign powers present in Northern Mali was a kamikaze attack by al-Murabitun in January 2017. The attack targeted a camp of fighters of various militias (pro- and anti-Bamako) in Gao. The concentration and training of ex-fighters, foreseen in the Algiers agreement, is meant to prepare them to patrol Northern Mali together with units of the Malian army. The Gao attack caused about 200 casualties, mostly among fighters of the CMA (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attentat_de_Gao, last accessed 04/06/2017).
- 68.
Forrest (2003).
- 69.
Klute (2013b).
References
Amnesty International. (2012). Mali: retour sur cinq mois de crise. Rébellion armée et putsch militaire. London: Amnesty International report reference Afr 37/001/2012. Retrieved from http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AFR37/001/2012/en/35f18828-e1f3-4557-a09c-41a1cd584190/afr370012012fr.pdf
Aouad-Badoual, R. (1993). Le rôle de ‘Abidine el Kounti dans la résistance nomade à la conquête française de la boucle du Niger (1894–1902). Les Cahiers de l’IREMAM, 4, 35–48.
Badi, D. (2010). Les relations des Touaregs aux Etats: le cas de l’Algérie et de la Libye. Note de l’Ifri, 2010, Programme “Le Maghreb dans son environnement régional et international”. Paris: IFRI.
Baroin, C. (1985). Anarchie et cohésion sociale chez les Toubous. Les Daza Kéšerda (Niger). Paris: Éditions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme/Cambridge University Press.
Bellagamba, A., & Klute, G. (2008). Tracing emergent powers in contemporary Africa – Introduction. In A. Bellagamba & G. Klute (Eds.), Beside the state. Emergent powers in contemporary Africa (pp. 7–21). Köln: Köppe Verlag.
Berge, G. (2000) In defense of pastoralism. Form and flux among Tuaregs in Northern Mali. Doctoral Dissertation. Oslo: Oslo University.
Bernus, E. (1981). Touaregs Nigériens. Unité culturelle et diversité régionale d’un peuple Pasteur. Paris: Éditions de l’Office de la Recherche Scientifique et Technique outre-mer.
Blanguernon, C. (1983). Le Hoggar. Paris: Arthaud.
Bøås, M., & Torheim, L. E. (2013). The international intervention in Mali: “Desert blues” or a new beginning? International Journal, 68(3), 417–423.
Boilley, P. (1993). L’organisation Commune des Régions Sahariennes (OCRS): une tentative avortée. In E. Bernus, P. Boilley, J. Clauzel, & J.-L. Triaud (Eds.), Nomades et commandants: administration et sociétés nomades dans l’ancienne A.O.F (pp. 215–239). Paris: Karthala.
Boilley, P. (1995). OCRS/Royaume sanussi de Libye: deux tentatives pour durer? In C.-R. Ageron & M. Michel (Eds.), L’ère des décolonisations (pp. 359–368). Paris: Karthala.
Boilley, P. (1999). Les Touaregs Kel Adagh. Dépendances et révoltes: du Soudan français au Mali contemporain. Paris: Karthala.
Brachet, J. (2009). Migrations transsahariennes: vers un désert cosmopolite et morcelé, Niger. Croquant: Bellecombe-en-Bauges.
Buijtenhuijs, R. (1978). Le Frolinat et les revoltes populaires du Tchad, 1965–1976. Den Haag: Mouton.
Buijtenhuijs, R. (1987a). Le Frolinat et les révoltes populaires du Tchad. 1965–1976. The Hague/Paris/New York: Mouton.
Buijtenhuijs, R. (1987b). Le Frolinat et les guerres civiles du Tchad (1977–1984). Paris: Karthala.
Buijtenhuijs, R. (1988). Les Toubous et la rébellion tchadienne. In C. Baroin (Ed.), Gens du roc et du sable: les Toubou. Hommage à Charles et Marguerite Le Cœur (pp. 73–86). Paris: Presses du CNRS.
Chapelle, J. (1982). Nomades noirs du Sahara. Les Toubous. Paris: Harmattan.
Clauzel, J. (1963). L’évolution contemporaine de l’économie et de la société chez les Touaregs. Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques: Actualités d’Outre-mer, No. 24, Juillet.
Clauzel, J. (1992). L’administration coloniale française et les sociétés nomades dans l’ancienne Afrique occidental française. Politique africaine, 46, 99–116.
Correale, F. (2009). Le Sahara espagnol: histoire et mémoire du rapport colonial. Un essai d’interprétation. In S. Caratini (Ed.), La question du pouvoir en Afrique du Nord et de l’Ouest (pp. 103–152). Paris: Harmattan.
Fluchard, C. (1995). Le PPN-RDA et la décolonisation du Niger: 1946–1960. Paris: l’Harmattan.
Forrest, J. (2003). Lineages of state fragility. Rural civil society in Guinea-Bissau. Oxford/Athens: James Currey/Ohio University Press.
Grémont, C. (2010). Les Touaregs Iwellemmedan (1647–1896). Paris: Karthala.
Hall, B. (2011). A history of race in Muslim West Africa 1600–1960. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Henry, J.-R. (1996). Les Touaregs des Français. Les cahiers de l’IREMAM, 7(8), 249–268.
Ibn Hauqal. (1964). Configuration de la terre (Kitab surat al-‘ard) (trans: Kramers, J. H., & Wiet, G.). Collection Unesco D’oeuvres Représentatives Série Arabe. Paris: Maisonneuve & Larose.
Kaufmann, H. (1964). Wirtschafts- und Sozialstruktur der Iforas Tuareg. Dissertation, Köln.
Klute, G. (1995). Hostilité et alliances: archéologie de la dissidence des Touaregs au Mali. Cahiers d’Études africaines, 137(XXXV-1), 55–71.
Klute, G. (2009). The technique of modern chariots: About speed and mobility in contemporary small wars in the Sahara. In J. Bart, S. Luning, & K. van Walraven (Eds.), The speed of change. Motor vehicles and people in Africa, 1890–2000 (pp. 192–211). Leiden: Brill.
Klute, G. (2013a). Tuareg-Aufstand in der Wüste. Ein Beitrag zur Anthropologie der Gewalt und des Krieges. Köln: Koeppe Verlag.
Klute, G. (2013b). Post-Gaddafi Repercussions, global Islam or local logics? In L. Koechlin, & T. Förster (Eds.), Mali – Impressions of the current crisis Mali – impressions de la crise actuelle, Basel Papers on Political Transformations No. 5 (pp. 7–13). Basel: Institute of Social Anthropology.
Klute, G., & von Trotha, T. (2000). Wege zum Frieden. Vom Kleinkrieg zum parastaatlichen Frieden im Norden von Mali. Sociologus, L(1), 1–37.
Kronenberg, A. (1958). Die Teda von Tibesti, (Wiener Beiträge zur Kulturgeschichte und Linguistik, Band XII). Wien: Verlag Ferdinand Berger.
Le Coeur, C. (1950). Dictionnaire ethnographique Téda précédé d’un lexique français-téda. Paris: Mémoires de l’Institut français d’Afrique Noire.
Lecocq, B. (2003). This country is your country: Territory, borders and decentralisation in Tuareg politics. Itinerario: European Journal of Overseas History, 27(1), 58–78.
Lecocq, B. (2004). Unemployed intellectuals in the Sahara: The Teshumara nationalist movement and the revolutions in Tuareg society. International Review of Social History, 49(Suppl. 12), 87–109.
Lecocq, B. (2010). Disputed desert: Decolonisation, competing nationalisms and Tuareg rebellions in Northern Mali. Leiden: Brill.
Lecocq, B. (2013). Mali: This is only the beginning. Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, 14(summer/fall), 59–69.
Lecocq, B., & Belalimat, N. (2012). The Tuareg: Between armed uprising and drought. African arguments. London: Royal African Society. http://africanarguments.org/2012/02/28/the-tuareg-between-armed-uprising-and-drought-baz-lecocq-and-nadia-belalimat/
Lecocq, B., & Schrijver, P. (2007). The war on terror in a haze of dust: Potholes and pitfalls on the Saharan front. Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 25(1), 141–166.
Lecocq, B., Mann, G., Whitehouse, B., Dida, B., Pelckmans, L., Belalimat, N., Hall, B., & Lacher, W. (2013). One hippopotamus and eight blind analysts: A multivocal analysis of the 2012 political crisis in the divided Republic of Mali. Review of African Political Economy, 40(137), 343–357.
Nicolaisen, J., & Nicolaisen, I. (1997). The pastoral Tuareg. Ecology, culture and society (Vol. I + II). Copenhagen/London/New York: Rhodos International Science and Art Publishers/Thames and Hudson/Thames and Hudson.
Olivier de Sardan, J.-P. (1976). Quand nos pères étaient captifs… Récits paysans du Niger. (Traduits et édités par Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan). Paris: Nubia.
Porges, M. (2018). Western Sahara and Morocco: Complexities of resistance and analysis. In L. de Vries, P. Englebert, & M. Schomerus (Eds.), Secessionism in African politics: Aspiration, grievance, performance, disenchantment. New York: Palgrave.
Poulton, R., & ag Youssouf, I. (1998). A peace of Timbuktu – Democratic governance, development and African peacemaking. Geneva/New York: UNIDIR, 1998.
Salifou, A. (1993). La question touarègue au Niger. Paris: Karthala.
Scheele, J. (2012). Smugglers and saints of the Sahara: Regional connectivity in the twentieth century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Schomerus, M., & de Vries, L. (2018). A state of contradiction: Sudan’s unity goes south. In L. de Vries, P. Englebert, & M. Schomerus (Eds.), Secessionism in African politics: Aspiration, grievance, performance, disenchantment. New York: Palgrave.
Silberzahn, C. (avec J. Guisnel). (1995). Au cœur du secret. 1500 jours aux commandes de la DGSE (1989–1993). Paris: Fayard.
Triaud, J.-L. (1993). Un mauvais départ: 1920, l’Air en ruines. In E. Bernus, P. Boilley, J. Clauzel, & J.-L. Triaud (Eds.), Nomades et commandants: Administration et sociétés nomades dans l’ancienne AOF (pp. 93–100). Paris: Karthala.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lecocq, B., Klute, G. (2019). Tuareg Separatism in Mali and Niger. In: de Vries, L., Englebert, P., Schomerus, M. (eds) Secessionism in African Politics. Palgrave Series in African Borderlands Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90206-7_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90206-7_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-90205-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-90206-7
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)