Lions of the desert, struggles and obstacles to guarantee the life and integrity of the populations of Azawad
Ibrahim Ag Alhabib known as Abraybone, leader and founding member of the international Tuareg group, the famous Tinariwen, joined the fighters of the Permanent Strategic Framework for Peace, Security and Development (CSP-PSD), locally called the “revolutionaries of the ‘Azawad”. Ibrahim is a world-renowned guitarist and singer, he affirms in exchanges with the young people of his region that he chose: “leave the international scene, momentarily, to participate in the fight for honor to defend his land, Azawad (Northern Mali). Two months after the outbreak of this new phase of the conflict between the Azawad movements gathered in the CSP-PSD and the Malian Army and its mercenary auxiliaries of Wagner, supported by Burkina Faso and Niger (in the framework of Alliance of Sahel States – AES). Young activists from the Azawadian cause enthusiastically distributed photos of their famous musician last October (2023). It must be emphasized that Abraybone and his group represent a symbol in the Saharan world. Tinariwen won the Grammy Music Award in 2011.
The revolutionary story of this Tamacheque artist began at a young age, with the assassination of his father in 1963 by the Malian army, to which he paid tribute in a song entitled “sixty three '63' s' has passed but he will return. Ibrahim and other young people from his community were among the Tuareg revolutionaries who learned modern techniques of warfare in Libya. To achieve this goal, they were forced to fight alongside Libyan forces in Chad and Lebanon. Ibrahim was among the first young Ishumar people who left Libya to break out what they called "the 1990 revolution" in the Azawad desert, known officially as the "Tuareg Rebellions of the 1990s."
The conflict is seen by the Imazighen warriors of the Sahara, Kal Tamachaq, that is to say “the Tuaregs”, as a question of self-defense and honor (achak). They always declare in social networks, such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, among others that they are ready to fight against Malian aggression until the last man among them with the aim of guaranteeing the dignity of their mothers and sisters. In this context, an emblematic figure of contemporary Tuareg music, Ibrahim Ag Alhabib recorded his participation in the war for the liberation of his territory. He is leader and founding member of the Tinariwen group, the most famous of the Great Sahara desert blues. It is important to emphasize that Ibrahim's presence on the front had great meaning for all Azawadian youth, his songs and those of other members of Tinariwen encouraged the joining of thousands of young people in the revolution/rebellion of the 90s and 2012. Ibrahim and a hundred (maybe even thousands) of young people from Adagh grew up in this resistance, it was and still is part of their lives, their only dream of seeing the sun of independence of their Azawad, even a few seconds before leaving this world, as Ibrahim said even in front of his audience in Kidal in 2020, during the annual MNLA festivities. Some saw their fathers executed before their eyes (case of Ibrahim himself and many others) and/or mistreated to the point of death (case of several others) in 1963/64, during the first Tanakra (revolution or revolt) against Malian colonization as they called it.
The texts of Ibrahim and his group Tinariwen played a fundamental role in making the Tuareg movement known both inside and outside, a movement in which they were also fighters and they played for the fighters. With the guitar in one hand and the Kalashnikov in the other. Everyone (young people, women and old men) was moved and even made the decision to go to the front when they saw photos of Ibrahim in Anafif among the fighters. The women also sent their encouragement and congratulations to their great musician.
The transitional government led by young Malian colonels, namely: Assimi Goïta (president), Colonel Malick Diaw (president of the National Transitional Council) Sadio Camara (minister of defense), Modibo Koné (minister of State Security ) and Ismaël Wagué (Minister of National Reconciliation). These are the five most influential colonels of the transitional regime which currently rules Mali. These officers overthrew the regime of Ibrahim Boubacar Keita (IBK) after the putsch of August 18, 2020 after several anti-government demonstrations, mainly in the capital, Bamako, but also in certain regions. At the time, they were considered by the Malian street as heroes and even saviors of the homeland who completed the popular revolt.
For a first time, the National Committee for the Salvation of the People (CNSP), the name that the putschists gave themselves after the coup d'état, approached and dealt with all the entities which organized demonstrations against the former president, the late Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. The military assured to give power to civilians within a maximum of one year, as has happened every time there has been a coup d'état in Mali (1990, 2012). But what the Malian population did not understand was the intention of these soldiers to continue in power as long as possible.
To achieve this objective, the Malian junta began by questioning the Algiers agreement, an agreement that the democratically elected government had signed in 2015 with the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA), emphasizing that it was necessary to apply intelligently, otherwise, it risks leading to a division of the country. So its rereading, according to the transitional government, was important. Upon his arrival, the current Prime Minister. Choguel Kokalla Maïga, began a hate speech against the populations of Azawad, criticizing the Algiers agreement which he himself was campaigning for when it was signed. The debate then turned to the Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in Mali, resulting from the Algiers process. To avoid immediately confronting the Malian street, the Junta convened National Refoundation Conferences, chaired by soldiers or civilians close to the junta. The conclusions of this meeting suggested that the transition be extended for a maximum period of five years, thus going from six months to five years.
By legitimizing themselves through these meetings, the military in power have created a new discourse linked to what they call: Mali koura which means the new Mali, adds to this, a discourse of a strong Mali with an army which is growing in strength. power. It must be remembered that in Mali to be popular it is enough to assume a program of massacring the Tuaregs and Arabs of Azawad. The President of the Transition presents himself, then, as the man who will save Mali from the great Azawadian warriors, so that the country regains "its lost dignity" since its defeat before the Revolutionary Army of Azawad in 2012, during of the reconquest of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA). Defense agreements have been signed with several countries, Russia in first position; China and others like Turkey to provide weapons (tanks, warplanes, drones, etc.) and the most recent technologies of modern warfare.
It has been more than a year since the French soldiers of Operation Barkhan (initially called Serval) left the country following the arrival of Wagner's soldiers and then in June of last year (2023), the Malian minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdoulaye Diop, requested the departure of the multidimensional integrated mission for the stabilization of Mali (MINUSMA), which was granted unanimously by the Security Council.
The Algiers Agreement signed in 2015 and the security arrangements signed in 2014 defined the positions of each party (Malian Army and the Coordination of Azawad Movements-CMA). tension began to deteriorate since the beginning of August 2023, during an attack in Foita (in the Timbuktu region), followed by bombings by Malian warplanes on the CMA positions in Kidal, this that the latter considered a flagrant violation of previous agreements with the Malian state and held the junta responsible for the consequences of these attacks. The exit of MINUSMA from the locality of Ber was the starting point of this new crisis which continues until today. The CMA considers that the occupation of the Malian Army in Ber was illegitimate, in accordance with the document signed in May 2014 to guarantee ceasefires between the Azawad movements and Mali. A little later, precisely since 04/10/2023, violent clashes took place between the Malian Army, seen as a force of colonization and occupation, and the resistance fighters of the Permanent Strategic Framework for Peace and Security (CSP-PSD). Several warplanes, tanks, pick-ups of the Malian Army and its Russian mercenaries Wagner were destroyed by the Lions of the Sahara Desert, the fighters of the CSP-PSD.
This phase of the resistance struggle of the Lions of the Desert ended with their withdrawal from Kidal on November 14 last year and the capture of the city by Wagner's Russian mercenaries. Since their arrival in the cities of Azawad, the Wagner/Famas couple began their dirty work by committing massacres against civilians in all regions of Azawad and Macina. According to the Kal Akal Humanitarian Association, the Malian Army and its mercenaries from the Wagner company have killed around more than three hundred (350) innocent civilians.
Goita's government felt victorious against the lions of the desert as soon as it entered Kidal and began to throw away all the efforts of the international community. In his speech on December 31 for the New Year, the Malian putschist, Colonel Assimi Goïta announced the establishment of what he called a “direct inter-Malian dialogue” for peace and reconciliation, announcing indirectly the end of the Algiers Agreement. And in the end the Bamako Junta formalized, on Thursday January 25, 2024, the “end with immediate effect” of the Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation resulting from the Algiers Process, in a press release read on Algiers television. Malian state by Colonel Abdoulaye Maïga (another strong man of the junta), spokesperson for the military government.
The CSP-PSD has alerted the entire international community to the seriousness of the situation, according to Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, its spokesperson: the military in power have put an end to any possibility of negotiation by choosing the path of war. Ramadan said the consequences he described as "serious" and he considered the Agreement a unique opportunity for Mali's reconciliation and territorial integrity. The Azawadians say they are ready to fight for their dignity and emancipation for as long as possible. The coming months, or even years, will tell us more about the struggle of the Azawadian resistance fighters and anti-colonialists and according to them, Azawad will win.
Source : websites