Open Letter to the United Nations Security Council
Copied to Mr. António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, from Khmedon Ag Toumast, an activist defending the cause of the Azawad people.
Subject: An urgent appeal to end the suffering of the Azawad people and guarantee their basic human rights.
Your Excellencies, we address you today in the name of the human conscience, in the name of thousands of voices that have gone unheard, and in the name of a people who have been marginalized and forgotten for decades. The people of Azawad live in a vast desert stretching across northern Mali. They live persecuted by poverty, besieged by famine, deprived of education, healthcare, and security.
There, dreams are not born; childhood is buried in the eyes of children there. Humanity is being robbed of its natural right to life. We remind you that the Malian state, with the direct support of Russian mercenaries Wagner, has committed and continues to commit crimes against humanity in Azawad, including mass murder, systematic rape, genocide targeting children, women, and the elderly, the burning of villages, arbitrary arrests, indiscriminate bombing, and ethnic cleansing in flagrant and blatant violation of all laws.
International and Humanitarian: Women are being raped before the eyes of the world, children are being slaughtered in cold blood, villages are being burned with their inhabitants, and a people is being exterminated amidst shameful and disgraceful international silence.
In Azawad, death has become a daily occurrence, and the world is preoccupied with its silence. The people of Azawad are not asking for privileges or seeking to incite strife, but rather demanding their legitimate right to dignity, protection, and human and existential recognition.
Today, we call on you to stop the bloodshed and save what remains of this forgotten people, because silence in the face of injustice is complicity, and because we believe that the voice of conscience will not die, even if it is delayed.
Our Urgent Demands
1. Open an immediate, independent international investigation into the violations and crimes against humanity committed in Azawad.
2. Condemn the mass crimes against the people of Azawad, hold the perpetrators accountable, and prevent their impunity.
3. Immediately halt the violations committed by Malian forces and mercenaries, especially against defenseless civilians.
4. Sending an international field monitoring mission to ensure an end to the bombing, displacement, and ethnic cleansing.
5. Delivering urgent humanitarian aid, without any conditions, to the affected and stricken areas.
6. Recognizing the political, cultural, and linguistic rights of the Azawad people, in accordance with international law.
7. Including the Azawad issue on the Security Council’s agenda and holding the Malian government accountable for the crimes committed.
8. Launching a comprehensive, just, and peaceful political process that ends decades of marginalization and oppression and grants the Azawad people their right to self-determination and a voice in the future. This is not just a message, but a sincere humanitarian cry.
Dignity for the people of Azawad
Historical justice
The right to self-determination
Every child has the right to dream of a dignified homeland
For Dignity and Life
* A forgotten voice that must be heard
* Did you know that an entire region in the Sahel is suffering from marginalization? Learn about Azawad
* Azawad… Enough marginalization!
* Justice for Azawad now!
* The voice of Azawad = A human voice crying out for help
* Stop the silence on the suffering of Azawad!
* Azawad is not alone… We are with it! Freedom is a right, not a choice!
* The dignity of Azawad is part of human dignity. Azawad is bleeding while the global conscience is asleep!
Where is humanity in the tragedy of Azawad? Voices from the depths of suffering: A child in Azawad asks why we are forgotten?
In Azawad, children dream of school but cannot find it. Azawad is a land seeking the right to life. Azawad is not a crime, but a matter of dignity.
The voice of a mother crying over her son’s hunger in Azawad is more eloquent than all the media.
If you saw what is happening in Azawad, you would cry blood instead of tears. We demand the simple right to live like other human beings.
Messages to the global conscience.
O world, do not ignore Azawad as you have ignored your own consciences!
Silence about Azawad is participation in slow murder. Human rights are indivisible: either for everyone or they are meaningless! If freedom is a universal right, where does Azawad fit into this right? We want media that sees Azawad as it sees Ukraine and Palestine.
Humanitarian support should not be selective. Azawad deserves to be seen and heard.
From Azawad to all of humanity
* We, Azawad, will no longer be silent!
* We, Azawad, are invincible and cannot be sold.
* Freedom for Azawad is not a demand, but an inevitable destiny.
* If they stifle our voices, we will cry out with our lives!
* We are not asking for the impossible, we are asking for life.
Azawad needs an international commission of inquiry. No more neglect. Save lives in Azawad before it’s too late.
The right to life is non-negotiable. Save Azawad.
And I will continue to cry out when silence becomes betrayal.
A universal human cry.
Freedom is a right, not an option.
Freedom for all oppressed peoples. These are not just slogans, but calls of conscience, demands for justice, and a sincere call to humanity.
We appeal to you in the name of conscience, in the name of justice, and in the name of the children who are dying in silence, to champion this cause and save a people crying out to you before they are wiped out in a disturbing silence.
With all due respect and appreciation
Khamidoune Ag Toumast
Activist in defense of the cause of the people of Azawad.
13-08-25