Category: MNLA

• Security Challenges in Libya and the Sahel (CNA Workshop Report)

  December 19, 2012

  AQIM, Arab Spring, Libya, Mali, MNLA, North Africa, Terrorism, Tuareg

  Over the past two years, the world has witnessed a redrawing of the geopolitical map of the Middle East and North Africa. The responsibility for regional security and stability – which Western governments once relied on the area’s authoritarian regimes to ensure – now falls to the transitional or newly elected governments that replaced the Read.

• UN inches closer to approving ECOWAS intervention in Mali

  October 14, 2012

  Ansar Dine, AQIM, ECOWAS, Mali, MNLA, Tuareg

  Last week, the situation in Mali received some attention at the UN Security Council, which resulted in the council adopting Resolution 2071. However, if you look closely at the wording of the resolution, you’ll see that we’re still a ways from an ECOWAS-led military intervention in Mali. You may recall that back in July, UNSC passed Resolution 2056 which expressed the council’s readiness Read.

• Calls Continue for Military Intervention in Mali

  July 7, 2012

  Ansar Dine, AQIM, ECOWAS, Mali, MNLA, Terrorism, Tuareg

  In June, the African Union (AU) Peace & Security Council called upon the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to endorse the deployment of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Standby Force to ensure the security of the transitional institutions; restructure and reorganize the Malian security and defense forces; and restore State authority over Read.

• History may judge the MNLA as lost opportunity

  June 6, 2012

  Ansar Dine, Mali, MNLA, Tuareg

  Times are tough for the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA). Only two months ago, the Tuareg rebel group was at its peak. Having possessed the strategic initiative in the aftermath of the Malian military’s March 22 coup against Amadou Toumani Touré, the MNLA had also been well armed with machine guns, mortars, antitank and antiaircraft Read.

• How to Create Your Own State: Lessons for the MNLA from Africa’s Successful Irredentist Movements

  April 6, 2012

  Mali, MNLA, Tuareg

  Today, the MNLA released a statement that they “irrevocably declare, as of this day Friday, April 6, 2012, the independent state of Azawad.” However a cursory look at post-colonial African history demonstrates that a declaration alone does not a state make. Signed in 1963, Article III of the Charter of the Organization of African Unity Read.

• Instability in Mali Complicates Regional Approach to AQIM

  April 5, 2012

  AQIM, Mali, MNLA, Tuareg

  (Originally published in World Politics Review on April 5, 2012) Over the weekend, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) seized Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu, the three major cities of northern Mali that lie within the region the Tuareg rebel group refers to as “Azawad.” This development highlights the inability of the military-led Read.

• After the loss of Kidal and Gao, what next for the MNLA and CNRDR?

  April 1, 2012

  Mali, MNLA, Tuareg

  As anticipated, the MNLA has seized upon the confusion in Bamako to advance from more rural targets such as Ménaka and Tessalit to those that are more heavily populated and strategically important. In the last two days, Tuareg rebels have seized the northeastern Malian towns of Kidal and Gao, along with their military garrisons, making Timbuktu Read.

• Three Takeaways from Last Week’s Coup in Mali

  March 27, 2012

  Libya, Mali, MNLA, Tuareg

  Last week in Mali, mid-level military officers led by Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo declared themselves the National Committee for the Restoration of Democracy and State (CNRDR) and deposed democratically-elected president Amadou Toumani Touré in a bloodless coup. Known as the “soldier of democracy” Touré had himself launched a coup in 1991 against the military regime Read.