| 2008 Nampala attack | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Tuareg rebellion (2007–2009) | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Mali | ATNM MNJ (per Mali) | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Unknown | Ibrahim Ag Bahanga | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 9-20 killed 13 injured Several missing | 11 killed (per Mali) | ||||||
| Several civilians killed | |||||||
On December 20, 2008, Tuareg rebels from the Niger-Mali Tuareg Alliance attacked Malian forces in Nampala, Mali.
Ibrahim Ag Bahanga, the leader of the Malian Tuareg rebel group Niger-Mali Tuareg Alliance (ATNM), had returned to Mali from exile in Libya just before December 2008. Bahanga's ATNM was one of the last Tuareg rebel groups active during the Tuareg rebellion, as his previous group May 23, 2006 Democratic Alliance for Change (ADC) had signed an Algerian-brokered peace agreement months prior. [1] Beginning on December 18, 2008, Bahanga's ATNM started attacking Malian forces again. [1]
On December 20, ATNM fighters attacked the Malian garrison at Nampala after travelling around a thousand kilometers from their bases in Algeria. The ATNM convoy was spotted en route by American satellites, but Malian officials dismissed the warning. [2] The assault began around 3am, with ATNM using fifty men on around 15 to 16 pick-ups to conduct the attack. [3] Malian security sources alleged that the Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ) was embedded with the ATNM. [3] The initial attack was repelled by Malian forces, but rebels that had recently integrated into the Malian army mutinied and killed their company commander. [4] [2] The mutiny sowed panic between Malian troops, and the garrison was taken in a second ATNM attack. [2] Malian reinforcements then arrived at Nampala. [3]
The Malian Ministry of Defense stated nine soldiers and eleven rebels were killed in the attack. [2] Malian newspaper L'Essor put the toll at fifteen Malian soldiers killed and thirteen injured, with many more missing. [3] Sources close to the ATNM alleged that twenty Malian soldiers were killed, and several civilians were killed in the attack as well. [2] [5]
The Nampala attack ended negotiations between rebel groups and the Malian government. Malian President Amadou Toumani Touré ordered colonels El Hadj Ag Gamou and Ould Meydou to begin Operation Djigutugu to destroy ATNM bases in and around northern Mali. [6]
Azawad, or Azawagh, was a short-lived unrecognised state lasting between 2012 and 2013. Azawagh (Azawaɣ) is the generic Tuareg Berber name for all Tuareg Berber areas, especially the northern half of Mali and northern and western Niger. The Azawadi declaration of independence was declared unilaterally by the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) in 2012, after a Tuareg rebellion drove the Malian Armed Forces from the region.
From 1990 to 1995, a rebellion by various Tuareg groups took place in Niger and Mali, with the aim of achieving autonomy or forming their own nation-state. The insurgency occurred in a period following the regional famine of the 1980s and subsequent refugee crisis, and a time of generalised political repression and crisis in both nations. The conflict is one in a series of Tuareg-based insurgencies in the colonial and post-colonial history of these nations. In Niger, it is also referred to as the Second or Third Tuareg Rebellion, a reference to the pre-independence rebellions of Ag Mohammed Wau Teguidda Kaocen of the Aïr Mountains in 1914 and the rising of Firhoun of Ikazkazan in 1911, who reappeared in Mali in 1916. In fact the nomadic Tuareg confederations have come into sporadic conflict with the sedentary communities of the region ever since they migrated from the Maghreb into the Sahel region between the 7th and 14th centuries CE. Some Tuareg wanted an independent Tuareg nation to be formed when French colonialism ended. This, combined with dissatisfaction over the new governments, led some Tuareg in Northern Mali to rebel in 1963.
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