WE ARE HERE TO TELL THE WORLD WHAT IS HAPPENING IN AZAWAD
Azawad is not just a region, it is a symbol of struggle, resistance and dignity for a people seeking recognition and self-determination.
The Malian authorities has since the 60s been implementing an ethnic cleansing replacement policy aimed to erase the Tuaregs, Arabs (moors) Peuhls and some others from Azawad. The so called “rebellions” are neither rebellions nor terrorism, they are the resistance of a people forced to fight an existenstial war.
Do they not have the right to live on their ancestral land like any other people?
The Azawad Army does not wage expansionist wars or target innocents.
Rather, they defend their land and people against an occupying army that has committed documented massacres, and against hired foreign militias that practice genocide and displacement under official cover.
The Touaregs wherever they are must know that AES is an alliance designed to exterminate them.
Azawad is at war, not out of a desire for conflict, but out of a refusal to disappear. Every bullet fired is a response to years of oppression. Our revolution is not a cry for vengeance; it is a call for dignity. We do not seek domination, only justice. The forgotten voice of Azawad needs to be heard. People of Azawad deserve justice and dignity.
They fight neither for money nor for glory, they fight for the right to exist on the land where they and their generations before them since millennia were born, and left the tifinagh on the rocks as proof of their existence.
The solution to all the problems is simple… independence of Azawad. it`s long due, since the 1960s.
THIS WEBPAGE IS A PEACEFUL SUPPORT TO THE CAUSE OF THE PEOPLE OF AZAWAD.
“The Tuareg people have long been marginalized, isolated, crushed, trampled and one day they said enough is enough. They rebelled to say that they exist and that they must have the same rights as other peoples” Mano Dayak, Interview, 1994
“My friends across Africa, I have a question,
A question that keeps haunting me… Is revolution like certain trees whose branches will only grow if they are watered?”
Tinariwen
AZAWAD PAGES:
AZAWAD NEWS
BY AZAWAD SUPPORT GROUP, AZAWAD FREEDOM VOICE, TOUMAST INFO & OTHER CONTRIBUTORS
Here we share news about what is happening in Azawad, from 2022 and onwards.
However, it must be remembered that this struggle for freedom has been going on since the 1960s! The people of Azawad have suffered a lot!
We display the headlines of eight news articles on this frontpage, but there is a lot more in the drop-down menus of “Previous posts” – where you can search for months or cathegories.
By Mohamed AG Ahmedou.
In the western part of the Goundam district, a region on the outskirts of Timbuktu, an elderly Tuareg man speaks in a trembling voice. He makes no political demands, offers no ideological agenda. He asks for blessings. He asks for help. He simply asks to be able to sleep again.
His raw, almost biblical testimony sheds light on a reality that official statements tend to gloss over: the extreme vulnerability of nomadic civilians caught in the Malian security apparatus and the intervention of foreign troops, particularly Russian mercenaries operating under the name Afrika Korps.
“We are not seeking wealth.”
The first striking element of this heartfelt cry is its moral detachment. “We are not seeking wealth,” he says. This sentence is essential. It immediately dismantles the security argument that equates nomadic areas with armed sanctuaries or criminal economies.
This old man describes a marginalized pastoral society, living off flour bartered for a few goods, traveling with “old donkeys and carts.” In other words: a survival economy. Nothing that corresponds to the fantasy of an insurgent logistical power.
“We have neither weapons nor support.”
The man insists: they are not affiliated with any warring party. This point deserves attention. In northern Mali, a climate of collective suspicion has prevailed for years. In certain areas, being Tuareg or Arab is tantamount to being presumed to be complicit with an armed group.
The testimony implicates the punitive expeditions carried out by Russian elements of the Afrika Korps, acting alongside Malian forces. He speaks of villages raided, hamlets destroyed, and livelihoods wiped out.
If these accusations are true, they would constitute not targeted counterinsurgency operations, but a strategy of collective terror, legally equivalent to serious violations of international humanitarian law.
“The men are hiding, the women and children are being abused.”
This sentence forms the moral core of the testimony. The men flee into the bush. The women, children, and elderly remain exposed.
In any asymmetric war, the first casualty is the boundary between combatant and civilian. Here, the old man asserts that this boundary has vanished. He speaks of extermination.
Of the systematic destruction of livelihoods, livestock, encampments, and basic supplies. The terror, he says, has lasted “for more than two years.” It is not a one-off outbreak. It is a climate.
The impossibility of escape:
Another crucial point: geographical confinement.
“We can go neither to Algeria nor to Mauritania.” These two countries, Algeria and Mauritania, have historically served as refuge or exile zones for nomadic Sahelian-Saharan populations. Today, according to this testimony, this escape route no longer exists.
The man describes an isolated people, immobilized by poverty and fear. No vehicles. Rare exchanges. No apparent humanitarian corridor.
A War That Destroys Sleep:
“We’re not asking for money, just to get our sleep back.”
This sentence might seem metaphorical. It isn’t. Sleep, here, is an anthropological indicator: that of basic security. A community that can no longer sleep is a community under permanent siege. Collective insomnia becomes the concrete measure of terror.
International Silence and a Hierarchy of Outrage:
Why hasn’t this testimony crossed media borders? Why haven’t these elderly voices, filmed in isolated rural areas, become urgent diplomatic issues?
The answer lies partly in the geopolitical realignment of the Sahel. Since the gradual withdrawal of Western forces, particularly French forces, and the rise of Russian actors through Africa Corps, the dominant narrative rests on regained sovereignty.
But can sovereignty justify opacity? Can it absolve operations that indiscriminately strike civilians and combatants?
Tuareg and Arab Civilians: Between Suspicion and Abandonment:
The old man specifies that it is the Tuareg and Arab civilian populations of the Timbuktu region who are affected. This communal dimension is explosive.
In an already fragmented Malian context, the perception of ethnic targeting—whether real or perceived—fuels divisions and sets the stage for future conflicts. The Malian state has a responsibility to protect all its citizens. While it may delegate some of the coercion to foreign actors, it remains legally and morally accountable for their actions.
What this cry truly says:
This testimony does not call for foreign military intervention. It does not demand weapons. It does not formulate a separatist agenda.
It asks for: An end to punitive expeditions, the protection of civilians, the ability to sleep, and international attention.
It is precisely this minimalism that makes it so devastating.
A collective responsibility:
If this cry is genuine and it is the responsibility of independent organizations to investigate, several urgent actions are required:
An independent international investigation into the operations conducted in the western part of the Timbuktu region, specifically in the departments of Goundam, Gargando, Niafunke, and Léré. Guaranteed humanitarian access to nomadic areas.
A public clarification of the exact role of Africa Corps in the region. A mechanism for the protection of civilians, under neutral supervision.
The old man concluded by invoking God and blessings. When a people has nothing left but that, it means all political structures have failed.
This heartfelt cry is not merely that of a very old man from the Goundam region. It may well be the sign of a silent shift: a war that no longer dares to speak its name, but which is taking root in the sleepless nights of Sahelian civilians.
In the western part of the Goundam district, a region on the outskirts of Timbuktu, an elderly Tuareg man speaks in a trembling voice. He makes no political demands, offers no ideological agenda. He asks for blessings. He asks for help. He simply asks to be able to sleep again.
“Red Sahara” or “Sahara Rouge” is the title of the new book by Alissa Descotes-Toyosaki folling her magnificient book “La Caravanière” – The Caravan. “Sahara Rouge” reflects a cruel reality that has transformed the once borderless home of nomadic peoples in the great Sahara and the Sahel into a battlefield where the people living there are paying the price.
POOR NOMADS ARE HUNTED LIKE PREY IN AZAWAD: Here is a transcription of a video posted by journalist Walid le Bérbére. It shows what the reality is for poor nomadic people living in Azawad. They are hunted like prey – by the Africa Corps Russian mercenaries, (ex Wagner) They live in a nightmare.
Mohamed Ag Ahmedou, a Tuareg from Mali, is in exile.
His family, massacred by Wagner Group paramilitary militias (Africa Corps) and Turkish drones used by the Malian army, along with many other Tuareg, Arabs and Fulani living in central and northern Mali, forced him to leave.
A journalist, writer, and contributor to numerous articles in print media and international academic journals, he chose to continue his struggle in the political arena.
I will try to translate what a child from Azawad addresses as a message of encouragement to his people.
These words represent: Courage, Resistance, and Endurance. Despite the infavorable conditions in which the child finds himself, he bravely and precisely expresses the three evils he faces daily – Fear, Wagner, and Drones.
Here is a link to an article by Rania Hadjer, highlighting the extremely unjust situation for the Tuaregs in Libya. How can this situation even be acceptable?
If Azawad never existed and was just a fantasy and dream on the social media as Malian Azawad-existence deniers keep saying, these maps, – and there are hundreds of them! – would never have been made and would not exist. Neither would the name Azawad exist in old history books and other writings but it does.
The Kal Akal Association’s 2025 annual report paints an extremely worrying picture of the human rights situation in the Azawad region. Based on corroborated and verified information, it highlights widespread and systematic violence against civilian populations.
EVERYTHING IS TARGETED IN AZAWAD, CIVILIANS, ANIMALS, EVEN NATURE, THE SITUATION IS ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE.
France is responsable for the Azawad situation. They should never have colonized and then attached Azawad to Mali. Two different countries. In conflict since then, especially due to the neglect and oppression by Mali.
The Azawadians did never agree to be attached to Mali, a country they had nothing in common with, and Mali did from the very beginning neglect and oppress Azawad – followed by the start of a genocide, but since they were never able to kill off the Azawadian people they called for help from external forces. Like Wagner, now Africa Corps and who, like the authorities of Mali, admittedly have no interest in human rights. And they use Turkish drones killing entire families. Only a fraction of all the suffering is brought to the attention of the media.
The people of Azawad have been forced to fight for decades, not by choice, but by necessity – to defend their land and identity, to defend their dignity. To survive – it`s an existential struggle, not just with weapons, but also culturally, and there is a cultural and mental and environmental genocide going on as well as an ethnic genocide.
BREAK THE SILENCE ON AZAWAD
The Azawadians did never ask for or agree to be attached to Mali! but they were force-attached.
And THIS is the ROOT of the PROBLEM!
Since independence, there has been no peace because it was not one country, but two – with distinct identities, one oppressing the other. Recognize this and peace will follow. #Azawad
In #Azawad there are no basic necessities like running water, schools, hospitals or roads due to state neglect. And when people ask for their rights they are labeled as terrorists by the junta and their supporters.. That is a common tactic by oppressive regimes and has also happened in other parts of the world when people are fighting for freedom against oppression, they label them terrorists.
When injustice is the law rebellion is a duty.
SELF-INTEREST IS THE ENEMY OF LIBERATION!
Betrayal is not only in actions, but in silence too!
IN AZAWAD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LET US NOT CLOSE OUR EYES LET US KNOW: THEY ARE MASSACRING THE INNOCENTS LET US REACT AGAINST THE BARBARIANS!
Can you, members of the international community, imagine what it must be like to live under these attacks and oppression from Fama and Africa Corps (ex Wagner)? For example, living in the desert, where you hear the noise from far away in the silence, and suddenly… you hear the noise of engines in the middle of the night? Someone is approaching and you know it is death.
So what can we do?
We can always do something, if there´s a will, there´s a way like Bob Marley used to say. For example, the least we can do is react. We can stop being silent! we can at least try to let the world know what is happening in Azawad. Silence kills.
We can also help with donations when Azawad Solidarity and local organizations has campaigns. Any donations helps, no matter how small. They recently had a very successful campaign and they posted a lot of pictures and information on the social media as well as made a video of the deliverance of medecines to refugees in Tinzawatine, you can read about it here.
A Z A W A D
Fama and Africa Corps (ex Wagner), they come to a village… and then they leave that village with a scar that takes generations to heal. And justice is still absent, but silence is not!!
Sunset on October 7 from the strip separating Tinzawatine in Algeria and Azawad. Photo: Lahcen Ag Touhami.
“BUT NOTHING AND NO ONE CAN DEFEAT THOSE WHO DEFEND A JUST CAUSE” Mano Dayak
Where are the human rights organizations regarding the suffering of the Azawadian people? Are you just decorations or are these people not human beings to you? #A-Voice-in-Azawad …
The unheard of atrocities against the civilians of Azawad continue in all their barbaric brutality by the Malian army and the terrorist Wagner militia, slaughtering Azawadian civilians in the name of fighting “terrorism” in their attempt to exterminate every living being in Azawad, using the burnt earth policy, and cheering themselves on in a barbaric act of genocide that continues while the world remains silent. it`s always the children who are the most vulnerable victims.
The nomadic population, forgotten by the world. It is confronted with the repression of terrorists on the one hand and regular and mercenary armies on the other, who do not differentiate between a terrorist and an innocent and targeting children is part of their agenda. In the picture is an injured child by the drone attack in Tinzawaten 2024 killing several children.
In the 70s, the Malian government took advantage of the drought to starve the inhabitants of Azawad, it is proven. Today, international humanitarian organizations were prohibited by the Malian authorities to help in the epidemic of malaria and dysentery and they are strongly suspected of adding chemicals in the drones causing an unknown disease as well as causing the animals to get deformed offspring. It is the same genocide that has been repeated since the 60s. Only the methods have become more sophisticated.
The daily life of the people of Azawad has become a nightmare, marked by violence and terror. The repeated incursions of the Africa Corps (ex Wagner) forces and the FAMA have plunged entire communities into indescribable suffering.
Entire villages are reduced to ashes, their homes burned, their property plundered without mercy. The meager pastures, source of life for the herders, are also ravaged by the flames, destroying all hope of subsistence.
Forced into exile, men, women and children find themselves surviving under modest sunshades, without shelter or resources, exposed to extreme precariousness. This blind violence destroys not only lives, but also entire generations, threatening the future of Azawad and the dignity of its inhabitants.
Please, if you are willing and able, support the suffering people and the fight for a free Azawad. The blood of the Azawadians is wasted while their just cause remain forgotten! What a shame! A sad reality! Their lives are worth as much as those of others, but they are considered useless in the eyes of the exploiters! Who can do anything about this situation?
AZAWAD IS BLEEDING…. THEY NEED OUR HELP AND SUPPORT!
You don’t compare the one who fights for money to the one who fights for his dignity. One sells his soul, the other defends his freedom.
IT IS UNACCEPTABLE FOR THE AFRICA CORPS (ex WAGNER) TO HELP THE ILLEGAL PUTSCHISTS CARRY OUT ETHNIC CLEANSING IN THE SAHEL REGION IN DISREGARD OF INTERNATIONAL LAW.
History will witness your silence 🤐 !!!! @ToumastInfo
WORDS ABOUT THIS WEBPAGE
“You are like a bright lamp shining in the darkness”….
“We must break the silence about Azawad!”
“Excellent”
“A very good webpage about Azawad, speaking about this case contiually, like they’re living it everyday. Thank you.”
“We need hope… and this webpage brings hope! tell the world about Azawad. Let them know that we exist!”
“You can make our voices heard”
“Azawad is a just cause, thank you all for supporting it, writing about it, it`s a just fight for freedom.”
“Thank you for being there. Thank you for writing. Thank you for not staying silent like so many others.”
A fraternal space managed with wisdom and kindness. A support page for the defense of the history, culture, and rights of the people of Azawad. Inform…Share!
