In a war there is a lot of propaganda and lies, and specifically in the media. In this article we present a few of the most common lies used by the oppressors to distort the Azawad cause and its history and tell the world lies to hide their own agenda.
Debunking the lies and false propaganda about the Azawad cause:
Lie: The Azawadian Tuaregs came from Libya to divide Mali.
Fact: No, they did not come from Libya in the sense of being of Libyan origin invading Mali. Those that came from Libya was Tuaregs returning home to their ancestral land Azawad, to continue the revolution that had already started before they (by force) had to leave (for a time) They returned home, not invaded.
Linking the 2012 revolution to the events in Libya, which is a common narrative in the Malian narrative and those influenced by them about the events of the revolution, describing the Azawadis as Libyans and so on.. is simply not the truth being told.
Despite the fact that the preparations and arrangements for the revolution preceded the fall of Gaddafi and preceded the Arab Spring revolutions in early 2011, as well as the establishment of the MNLA. Until 2008 and 2009, the front led by Ibrahim Bahanga was active, before he left to Libya under duress.
However, he returned after that in 2011 before Gaddafi was killed, and he was planning with the revolutionaries not only in Azawad but also in Aïr or northern Niger, to start a major revolution in which all Tuaregs would participate. However, he was killed before that in a mysterious accident in August 2011.
Lie: The Azawadian Tuaregs killed Gaddafi.
Fact: They definitely did not. Muammar Gaddafi was killed by the National Transitional Council on 20 October 2011 after the Battle of Sirte. Gaddafi, the deposed leader of Libya, was captured by NTC forces and executed shortly afterwards.
It had nothing to do whatsoever with the Tuaregs of Azawad, a blatant lie and not even a very smart one…
Lie: The Azawadian Tuaregs came from Libya to divide Mali.
Fact: No, they did not come from Libya in the sense of being of Libyan origin invading Mali. Those that came from Libya was Tuaregs returning home to their ancestral land Azawad, to continue the revolution that had already started before they (by force) had to leave (for a time) They returned home, not invaded.
Linking the 2012 revolution to the events in Libya, which is a common narrative in the Malian narrative and those influenced by them about the events of the revolution, describing the Azawadis as Libyans and so on.. is simply not the truth being told.
Despite the fact that the preparations and arrangements for the revolution preceded the fall of Gaddafi and preceded the Arab Spring revolutions in early 2011, as well as the establishment of the MNLA. Until 2008 and 2009, the front led by Ibrahim Bahanga was active, before he left to Libya under duress.
However, he returned after that in 2011 before Gaddafi was killed, and he was planning with the revolutionaries not only in Azawad but also in Aïr or northern Niger, to start a major revolution in which all Tuaregs would participate. However, he was killed before that in a mysterious accident in August 2011.
Lie: The Azawadian Tuaregs killed Gaddafi.
Fact: They definitely did not. Muammar Gaddafi was killed by the National Transitional Council on 20 October 2011 after the Battle of Sirte. Gaddafi, the deposed leader of Libya, was captured by NTC forces and executed shortly afterwards.
It had nothing to do whatsoever with the Tuaregs of Azawad, a blatant lie and not even a very smart one…
Lie: The Tuaregs of Azawad are the drogue traficants in Mali/Azawad is an intelligence and drug-trafficking project.
Fact: This is the most absurd lie and the weakest argument. Who protects the smuggling routes in the north? Who colludes with the cocaine networks coming from Latin America? Who opens the airspace and roads to international gangs in exchange for commissions? All fingers point to officers from the Malian army and its apparatus, and it is well-known.
As for the true freedom fighters who took up arms in defense of Azawad, most of them are honorable. They emerged from deprivation, not from intelligence offices. They emerged from oppression, not from foreign agendas.
Lie: It`s the fault of the Azawadians themselves that the civilian people in Azawad gets killed, and it is them who are guilty (of the genocide performed on them by Fama and the Africa Corps, ex Wagner)…
Fact: No, they are not guilty because it is not them who kill civilians. They never asked to be attached to Mali and to be marginalized and oppressed. They are not guilty of a genocide against themselves!
They only resist oppression and fight back, and they fight not for money they fight for their honor and freedom. And to say to the Azawad forces and even to the civilian people that laying down the arms is the only solution is ignoring that they are not attacking, they are defending themselves against a systematic genocide.
The Malian army and the Africa Corps ex Wagner has the choice not to kill civilians and only target the Azawadian armed revolutionaries on the ground. But usually they don`t, instead they kill unarmed civilians, often from the air by drones, which is an act of cowardice and thus it is them and them only who bear the responsibility of killing civilians.
So to say that disarmament is the only solution is to ignore a painful reality: those who die the most are not armed men, but defenseless civilians. Those who took up arms, like the FLA, did so to protect their people, not to attack.
The massacres perpetrated by the Malian army and Wagner target innocent people, women, children, the elderly—not combatants. So, disarm, yes, but let those who kill the innocent start. Because you don’t disarm in the face of an executioner; you resist to survive.
Which people, anywhere, would accept their country being stolen and lay down their arms of resistance and allow themselves to get wiped out? and their own unique culture and lifestyle to become erased and dissolved into something else, and to be forced to leave their land by getting your house burnt? why should the Tuaregs and the others in Azawad accept that? of course they resist!
And who brought this problem to Mali? it was Mali itself since its creation by France. By neglect and oppression, racism and marginalization and performing genocide on the Azawadian people with the help of Russian mercenaries and Turkish drones.
Trying to make the victim guilty is an old and worn-out tactic, nothing else.
The comparison with Azawad and Mali:
France is a former colonial power, yet it engages in dialogues with its former colonies and recognizes the rights of peoples to independence or autonomy.
Mali, itself a victim of former colonization, refuses to recognize the Azawad people’s right to self-determination, even though the ties between Azawad and Mali are historically fragile or non-existent, and Mali’s presence in Azawad came only after French colonization.
Ayoub Ch Attaher
Lie: It was Azawadian rebels who attacked the Timbuktu boat.
Fact: All investigations made points to the jihadist group Jnim and according to the reports the Jnim themselves admit to it. The government also officially attributed the attack to the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (JNIM), an Al-Qaeda-affiliated jihadist group, which claimed a simultaneous attack on a military base in Bamba.
It was not specified exactly how many died in each assault, but according to international reports the assaults were claimed by JNIM.
However, the junta and pro-government social media accounts also raised suspicions against a Tuareg-led separatist group, then known as the Permanent Strategic Framework for the Defence of the People of Azawad (CSP-DPA), despite a lack of evidence and the group’s denial of involvement, and they put suspicions on them only to serve their own agenda. So no, it was not Azawad.
Lie: The Azawad Liberation Front and the Azawad population are terrorists.
Fact: No they are not terrorists. The definition of a terrorist is someone or a group, who terrorize and kill civilians to reach an agenda, political or religious. Almost everybody know that they are not terrorists, but just ask yourselves these questions:
Do the Azawad Liberation Front go into villages and kill Malian civilians, decapitate, rape, eat and burn alive unarmed civilians? Do they bomb civilian houses and vehicles with unarmed civilian people in them with drones? do the Azawadian population poison Malian wells or throw killed children in them? do they kidnap and kill Malian techers from schools?
All these things are done daily by the Malian army and the Africa Corps.
The authorities in Bamako has as a part of their genocidal agenda to blur the difference between the Azawadian freedom fighters and the groups of jihadists in the area. But there is a huge difference and no, the Azawadians are not terrorists. Their only wish is to get independence or self-determination so they can live in peace on their land as they used to do and live their own lifestyle, free.
The Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) is a responsible movement, rooted in the will of the people, by the people, and for the people.
Calling everyone who is armed in Mali and Azawad a terrorist is also wrong since being armed as self-defense against oppression is not terrorism. Calling that for terrorism does not change the fact that it is not. A written lie does not change the truth. Terrorism is one thing, defense against oppression another.
Not seeing the difference is ignorant. Not accepting the difference is being a liar who either lies to himself or to others. Using it as a disinformation weapon is evil since it supports the genocide on the Azawadian people. Using it as a disinformation weapon is also in many cases to be ignorant of the fact that certain powers are just using them for their own interests and benefit, not theirs.
Finally: This thing called doubt (the opposite of faith) and which is lurking in the shadows, don’t let it take hold of you. It’s only there to weaken you. The Touaregs wherever they are must know that AES is an alliance designed to exterminate them. And that one of the main objectives of this alliance is to fight the Tuareg separatists of AZAWAD.
MEDIA IS THE WEAPON OF THE UNARMED
Quote from a post by @Mohamed Mouloud Ramadan
Official Spokesperson for the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) :
Media is the weapon of the unarmed, and the shield of those seeking justice in a time of confused narratives.
You are the soldiers in the battle for awareness, the bearers of the banner of free speech, and the honest voice that does not break in the face of distortion or falsification.
Create media worthy of Azawad, enlightening minds, uniting ranks, and planting hope in hearts. Be messengers, not mere transmitters. Every publication, every report, every photo or video of you is a building block in building the future of this beloved land.
Said Ben Bella, Ag Balah, Mohamed Mouloud Ramadan
MEDIA FOR TRUTH AND FOR PROPAGANDA
Revolutionaries and their allies, use media to educate, tell the truth, inspire, combat and denounce false propaganda and lies aimed to distort, delay and hinder the cause of Azawad.
Propaganda is everywhere, and all the time, and we need to be aware of it. For example in a report it was written (in 2024) that the Wagner Group spend around 35 000 USD just on social media, to spread propaganda and to hinder and delay and report postings
ADF MAGAZINE – Africa Defense Forum (ADF) – Matter of 2024 on the Russian media manipulation, disinformation and propaganda machine that omitted or distorted information about the ongoing atrocities against ethnic minority civilians in the Sahel, and the motives behind these atrocities. The PDFs can be read in english, french and arab.
PDF ARCHIVE The ADF articles.
Here is just one example of attempts to distort the reality of the Azawad cause.
This example of propaganda – which in a video apparently said that France had promised a state called “Azawad” to the “terrorists from Libya” who “killed Gaddafi”, “hoping to divide Mali” …
– What nonsense! The truth: it was France that created Mali, and attached it (against the will of the Azawadian people) to Mali, its new state, as an extension of French colonialism. And which categorically rejected the existence of Azawad! as for the rest … only a donkey* would believe it.
And as for division… who wouldn’t want to be free from these genocidaires?
Resisting marginalization is not by weapons alone, but by thought, knowledge and patience.
We live in a rapidly changing world. He who does not pay attention will be lost (Tinariwen)
Media is the weapon of the unarmed, but also by the otherwise armed. Whatever the battlefield is – use it! denounce the crimes and lies by the enemy, shoot the arrows of truth!
Because lies can never prevail, it´s always the truth that prevails in the end.
Khamidoune Ag Toumast: from another related posting –
“After a period of absence from Facebook I returned to find the battle raging between me and the cheerleaders of the criminals falsely called the Malian army.
This army not only commits crimes on the ground but has also opened a new front: Falsifying the truth and distorting the cause of Azawad through social media. I know that my posts and responses may have annoyed some perhaps their frequency has tired you but this is our duty.
We are not merely responding to lies, we are confronting an organized campaign aimed at manipulating public awareness and tarnishing our legitimate struggle.
We must understand that the psychological war on social media is one of the most dangerous and powerful tools of struggle in this era.
It is not fought with guns alone, but with words, images, and positions. This war does not fire bullets but it changes minds shapes awareness and shifts the balance.
Whoever controls the narrative, controls the minds. And whoever masters influence can plant defeat or hope doubt or confidence in the hearts of thousands without ever leaving their seat.
This is what we the people of Azawad must understand.
Our enemy doesn’t fight us with weapons alone they spend millions to distort our cause silence our voices falsify our history and erase our existence from collective memory.
Shall we leave the arena for them? Shall we remain silent while they flood platforms with lies and slander?
No a thousand times no!
Every post we write every image we share every video we publish every voice we raise is an arrow in the heart of the occupation and a light on the path to freedom.
We are not fighting only for land, but for identity for dignity for the future.
And if psychological warfare is fought in the digital world then our weapon must be awareness creativity and determination to speak the truth.”
ENCOURAGE AND INSPIRE!
We must not forget to encourage each other and inspire each other, because the oppression is never taking a break. Therefore we too, must never take a break!
We must also never forget that on the internet nothing is private, nothing at all. Don`t believe everything you read, verify the information that you see.
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The Touaregs wherever they are must know that AES is an alliance designed to exterminate them. And that one of the main objectives of this alliance is to fight the Tuareg separatists of AZAWAD.
There are two principal battlefields and also a combination of them, the rough one on the terrain with arms, and the more subtle but powerful one in the media with words, pictures, videos, it`s a psychological war. Whatever is your battlefield, make sure to be on the right side of justice!
Those that stand up for the truth shines like bright stars in the darkness of evil and oppression, and in due time they will be rewarded, whether in this life or the hereafter.
The dog barks, and the caravan passes calmly…
Azawad Support Group