The Azawad cause does not date back to yesterday, or to 2012: Here is a multi-page letter signed by more than 300 Azawad chiefs addressed to De Gaulle in 1958, two years before Mali’s independence, asking not to be annexed to it.
The letter addressed to de Gaulle by the customary chiefs of Azawad in 1958.
Regarding the Malian-Azawad conflict:
We have to go back to 1958.
A short rèsume:
300 traditional chiefs of Azawad sent a letter to De Gaulle to let him know that if he annexed Azawad to Modibo’s socialist regime, he would assume the responsibilities.
1963 – First rebellion against Modibo’s socialist regime. Diby Silas massacred many Tuaregs and Arabs (moors).
1973 – There was a great famine in the Sahel which drove many Tuareg and Arabs into exile in Algeria and Libya.
1979-80 Many joined the Libyan army to learn the trade and acquire new knowledge to defend themselves. Gaddafi sent Tuaregs and Arabs to fight in the wars in Chad and Lebanon.
1990 – These men returned with the aim of conquering their territory, Azawad, which had earlier been annexed by France to Mali. These men were commanded by Iyad Ag Aghali, Alhaji Ag Gamou, Assalat Ag Habi. This rebellion ended thanks to the Tamanrasset agreements in 1996.
In 1999 after Algeria drove out the GSPC (now AQMI), they arrived in Tegargar in the Ifoghass massif.
The Malian regime at that time allowed AQMI to expand by abducting Westerners throughout the sub-region and creating a prison in the great Azawad desert before selling them. There is evidence that high-ranking officials received ransom money.
In 2007, with the arrival of Colombian cocaine, ATT was the intermediary that allowed Air Cocaine to arrive here.
On November 1, 2010, young Tuareg, Arab, and Songhai people gathered in Timbuktu to create the MNA (National Movement of Azawad). It is a political association that has a receipt issued by the State of Mali.
In 2011 after the fall of Gaddafi, the men who had gone into exile returned home with a large arsenal, and this led to the creation of the MNLA, which was previously the MNA.
The 2012 rebellion was the last straw. Otherwise, the state was just a facade.
Rhissa Ag
Here are pages of the multi-page letter signed by more than 300 Azawad chiefs addressed to De Gaulle in 1958, two years before Mali’s independence, asking not to be annexed to it.
A CONFLICT THAT NEVER ENDS
Tuareg battle against french colonizers, defending their tribal autonomy, year 1900.
The main problem with the situation in Azawad is that this struggle has a background, a history that has been ignored and therefore never understood, because the fact that the Azawadians never considered themselves part of Mali and never agreed to be neither colonized nor attached to Mali, a country with which they have nothing in common, has always been ignored since the French colonists arrived and invaded the country.
This force attachment against the will of the Azawadian people, together with the marginalization, oppression, racism and genocide by the successive Malian authorities is what is the root of this more than 60 year long conflict.
And because of this, and the fact that Mali is committing genocide against the Azawadian people and violating every human rights in existence. With the help of Russian criminal foreigners, bombing civilian families in the desert with their Turkish-made drones, violating women, killing and burning people, animals and the land, the struggle will never end. And there will be no peace in Mali until this problem is resolved.
Mali ignores the fact that the Azawadian people lived on their land long before colonization even began, long before Mali was even invented by France. All attempts at negotiation have never worked because the Malian junta does not want peace with the Azawadian people, and it was Mali who broke the Algiers agreement.
To quote Loup Viallet, Journalist, geopolitician, Director of the newspaper http://Contre-Poison.fr:
1 – France has every interest in recognizing the independence of Azawad in northern Mali. This decision would allow 1) the emergence of a stable, reliable, and accountable partner in an increasingly chaotic region, and 2) the rectification of a historical error made by de Gaulle.
2 – Mali is the epicenter of Sahelian chaos, the migratory and security consequences of which are weakening African and European borders. A fictitious state, its ethnic groups are too heterogeneous to constitute a coherent political community, and it has been ungovernable since 1960.
3 – In 1958, 300 Tuareg chiefs from Azawad expressed their refusal to be integrated into the Mali Federation, preferring to join Algerian territory. They sent a letter to de Gaulle, citing the incompatibility of their ways of life. No response from him.
4 – Now is the time to rectify de Gaulle’s mistake. The Malian state is incapable of governing the North. The cycle of rebellion and repression can be broken. This decision would provide Paris with a coherent partner to combat trafficking and halt Sahelian immigration.
Azawad Support Group
30-04-26