Malian rebels quit accord signed with al Qaeda affiliate

Ansar_dine_april_2012.jpg

Ansar Dine fighters fly al Qaeda’s banner in Northern Mali in late April 2012. (Source: PanAfrican News Wire)

Less than a week after Tuareg rebels belonging to the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) merged with the al Qaeda-supported Ansar Dine (Defenders of Faith) Islamist group and signed an accord to create the Islamic Republic of Azawad in northern Mali, leaders from the MNLA have publicly revoked their support for the accord.

“The political wing, the executive wing of the MNLA, faced with the intransigence of Ansar Dine on applying sharia in Azawad and in line with its resolutely secular stance, denounce the accord with this organization and declare all its dispositions null and void,” read a written message attributed to senior MNLA political leader Hama Ag Mahmoud on June 1. Other senior political MNLA officials, including Magdi Ag Bohada, have also disavowed the accord.

Discord between the MNLA and Ansar Dine occurred almost immediately after both parties signed the agreement on May 26 that established an independent Tuareg state in northern Mali reinforced by the imposition of sharia.

Senior MNLA members have long been uneasy with Ansar Dine’s harsh interpretation of Islam and desire for a strict version of sharia law. “We want sharia similar to that in Mauritania or even Egypt. This point must be clarified,” Ibrahim Ag Assaleh, an MNLA official in the northern city of Gao, told Reuters three days after the accord was signed. The MNLA has also strongly disagreed with Ansar Dine about what types of punishments should be implemented against those accused of committing a crime, specifically the amputation of hands.

Despite the public statements by MNLA leaders renouncing their support for the accord, armed Ansar Dine militiamen continue to patrol the streets of northern Mali’s population centers, including Gao, Kial, and Timbuktu, enforcing sharia no matter how unpopular the new restrictions have become among residents who have long observed moderate Islamic values and customs.

Local Tuaregs have protested against Ansar Dine’s attempt to enforce a strict dress code, the prohibition of alcohol and smoking of cigarettes in public, and the closure of cinemas. According to The New York Times, Ansar Dine militiamen have defaced the shrine of a 15th-century Sufi saint, music has been banned from the radio, and the black flags of Ansar Dine, which mirror those of al Qaeda, have been draped around the urban environs of northern Mali. These and other unpopular restrictions have forced many residents to flee northern Mail since the MNLA and Ansar Dine consolidated power in the region around a month ago.

The United Nations estimates that more than 160,000 Malians have fled to the neighboring countries of Mauritania, Burkina Faso, and Niger, and more than 140,000 residents have been displaced in Mali itself since the Malian government collapsed in late March.

The current political crisis between the MNLA and Ansar Dine has prompted senior members of Ansar Dine, including its leader and former MNLA spokesman Iyad Ag Ghali, to travel back to Gao from an undisclosed location in an attempt to salvage the May 26 accord. Some members of Ansar Dine believe the voice of dissent among the MNLA is restricted to the movement’s political wing, and view the crisis as a minor, if not irrelevant, development.

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5 Comments

  • Fred says:

    The black flag is neither the flag of al Qaeda nor the flag of Ansar Dine- it is the flag of Jihad. Every jihadi group I’ve seen uses it, or a variation. Supposedly, it’s the same flag Mohammed used when he fought his battles.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Standard

  • mike merlo says:

    Let the purge begin!

  • Tony Buzan says:

    Superb and comprehensive article in the Financial Times of London on these Malian topics yesterday!
    Registration, but no fee required:
    http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/8d0ac20a-abd5-11e1-a8da-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1wmwgsOXy

  • Neo says:

    The MNLA has its roots in an older Tuareg nationalist ethnic movement. I don’t think they have the slightest idea what the hell they’ve signed on for. They have signed on with a group that is fundamentally anti-nationalist. To al Qaeda the Tuareg cause is just an oppertunity to add some strategic depth to their North African jihad.
    I don’t think they’ll bump off MNLA members right away. It looks like they will just ignore them for now. It will be interesting to see how long the current arrangement lasts.

  • Will Fenwick says:

    Fred – The description of Mohammed’s black flag generally does not include any specific inscriptions or symbols. Militant Salafist organizations use different variants of the black flag depending on their organization. For example though Abu Sayyaf, Al Qaeda, and Al-Shabab all use “the black flag” their flags are all actually quite different. It seems that the flag Ansar Dine is using is rather similar to the variant used by Al-Shabab and AQAP. Wikipedia is actually quite a poor source for vexillological information on the flags of salafist organizations since there are editors that put up a specific flag variant regardless of the organization and without any citations or other evidance of actual use. For example The flag wikipedia lists as belonging to Ansar dine here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansar_Dine is quite different from the one that is in actual use as depicted above.

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