The secular rebel group of Saharan
Tuareg tribesmen known as the
National Movement for the Liberation of
Azawad (MNLA) has agreed to
merge with the
al Qaeda-supported Ansar Dine (Defenders of Faith)
Islamist rebel group. The new entity has declared the creation of an
autonomous state in northern
Mali, the Islamic Republic of Azawad.
 |
| Joe Burgess/The New York Times |
After the signing of the accord on May 26, "Colonel" Bouna Ag Attayoub, an MNLA commander in
Timbuktu,
told the BBC
that "[t]he Islamic Republic of Azawad is now an independent sovereign
state." The declaration of the breakaway state and the merger of the
secular Tuareg rebel movement with the al Qaeda-linked Ansar Dine have
deepened the ongoing political and security crisis facing Mali since a
coup shook the central government on March 22.
"The Koran will be a source of the laws of the state," said Moussa Ag Acharatoumane, an MNLA spokesman,
according to The Telegraph.
"But we will apply the things we want and leave aside those we don't.
It will not be a strict application of the law." The signing of the
accord, which took place in the northern area of Gao and was accompanied
by celebratory gunfire, followed last week's brazen seizure of a key
Malian military armory by suspected Ansar Dine gunmen in the same area
of Gao.
Regional security sources confirmed the attack and seizure of the
arms depot, adding that Islamists linked with al Qaeda in Mali are now
"more armed than the combined armies of Mali and Burkina Faso,"
AFP reported.
Burkina Faso borders Mali to the east. Islamist rebels are now in the
process of implementing sharia law in various urban areas of northern
Mali, including Timbuktu.
Mali's northern regions of Kidal, Gao, and Timbuktu have been under
the de facto jurisdiction of Tuareg rebels and Ansar Dine since April 1.
The Islamist group Ansar Dine had first opposed the MNLA's previous
declaration of an independent state in April, preferring to maintain its
stance to enforce sharia throughout all of Mali. Similarly, the MNLA
had for some time resisted the Islamist views of Ansar Dine and
preferred to remain secular. The recently announced merger of MNLA with
Ansar Dine and the creation of the Islamic Republic of Azawad have
apparently laid to rest the mutual distrust between the groups, at least
for now.
Meanwhile, officials in Mali's transitional administration have
strongly rejected the merger and partition of the north, and Mali's
Communications Minister Hamadoun Toure demanded that "other countries
should help Mali tackle al Qaeda in the region,"
according to the BBC.
The MNLA has fought to make Mali's northern Azawad region, roughly the
size of France, into a separate state since Mali's independence from
colonial rule in 1960. The Ansar Dine movement is affiliated with al
Qaeda in the Islamic
Mahgreb (AQIM), and is determined to implement
sharia law across all of Mali.
In mid-April, three senior
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb leaders
were spotted in northern Mali after the government lost control of the
region. Abu Zeid, Mukhtar Belmukhtar, and Yahya Abu al Hammam reportedly
met with Tuareg leader Iyad Ag Ghaly in Timbuktu. Hammam is said to have been
named the leader of Islamist forces in Timbuktu.
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