Gamou was born to a family of shepherds in Tidermene, Ménaka Region, Mali. He is an Imghad Tuareg, which is considered a vassal tribe according to traditional Tuareg hierarchies.[2] In 1980, at the age of 16, Gamou joined the Libyan Army's Islamic Legion, where he met Iyad Ag Ghaly.[3] After a year of training in Libya, and a subsequent six-month stint in Syria with special forces, Gamou served in the Lebanese Civil War alongside the Palestinians.[3] He then returned to Libya after a few years of fighting, before taking part in the Toyota War.[4]
Satisfied with the peace accords that ended the Tuareg rebellion in 1996, Gamou joined the Malian Armed Forces later that year. He trained at the Koulikoro military school, and upon his release was assigned to Ségou Region as a staff officer.[5] Gamou served as a UNAMSIL peacekeeper in 1999 during the Sierra Leone Civil War. When he returned to Mali in 2000, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and awarded the military valor medal.[5] He was assigned to Gao in 2001, and later Kidal in 2005.[3]
During Gamou's tenure in Kidal, the Niger-Mali Tuareg Alliance led by Ibrahim Ag Bahanga rose up. Gamou led Operation Djiguitugu, which destroyed several ATNM bases.[6][7] Around this time, Gamou was considered a trusted confidant of Malian president Amadou Toumani Touré, being appointed deputy chief of staff in 2010. Gamou encouraged Toure to appoint Arabs and Tuaregs to military positions in northern Mali.[1]
Gamou was accused of protecting Baba Ould Cheikh, a Lemhar Arab trader and mayor of Tarkint who participated in the "Air Cocaine" scandal, which occurred when a Boeing 727 filled with cocaine arrived in Gao from Venezuela.[8][9] Gamou's protection of Cheikh sparked protests from Gao residents in 2012. In 2015, Gamou's daughter married Cherif Ould Taher, another Lemhar Arab affiliated with the Air Cocaine scandal.[10][11]
Tuareg rebellion of 2012
In 2011, during the Libyan civil war, 2,000 to 4,000 Tuaregs serving in the Libyan Army returned to Mali. Toure instructed Gamou to entice the returning Tuaregs into the Malian Army, which had partial success, as some Tuaregs joined what would soon become the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad.[12][13]
At the time of the rebellion, Gamou was a colonel-major commanding over Kidal Region. At the Battle of Aguelhok on January 17, the entire Malian Army garrison massacred by the separatists. Gamou led reinforcements from Kidal to recapture the town the following day, at which point the rebels had already abandoned.[14] Gamou attempted to break the siege of Tessalit in early February, but failed. When heading back to Kidal on February 11, Gamou was ambushed at Tissalane. Both sides claimed victory.[15][16] Tessalit fell to the rebel coalition a month later.
At the end of March 2012, when Kidal was attacked by the rebels, Gamou and his contingent of 500-600 men abandoned the city and retreated south.[17] While headed towards Gao, which had come under attack by rebels on March 31, Gamou was intercepted by the MNLA. He agreed to join the MNLA, but refused to allow 204 of his men to be conscripted into the MNLA. Instead of jointing, Gamou fled towards Niger, where he called the Malian consulate in Niger to ask for reinforcements to repatriate his men via Burkina Faso.[18] Gamou then fled his family to Niger, and informed the Malian government his intent to join the MNLA was instead a ruse to flee, reaffirming his commitment to the Malian state.[19]
On December 2, 2012, Gamou was the target of an assassination attempt in Niamey by a young jihadist. Three or four bullets were fired, two wounding Gamou in the thigh and one ricocheting off his phone. The suspect, who later announced his affiliation with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) was overpowered by Gamou, his bodyguard, and driver.[20]
2013 Malian counteroffensive and Battles of Kidal
Gamou remained in Niger for 10 months, returning in January 2013 during Operation Serval. His militia of 700 Tuaregs, 500 of whom were Imghad Tuaregs, were gradually integrated into the Malian Army.[3] Gamou captured Ménaka bloodlessly on January 15, 2013.[21] In late January or early February, Gamou entered Gao, which had been captured by the French not long before.[3] Gamou and French troops recaptured Menaka on February 12, again without a fight, after the MNLA captured it on February 5.[22] Shortly afterward, the MNLA accused French troops of firing upon a convoy carrying Abdoul Karim Ag Matafa, the minister of health for the Transitional Council of the Azawad State. The group threatened to attack the French forces, but did not.[3]
Gamou engaged in direct combat with MUJAO during the Fourth Battle of Gao.[23] In late February 2013, nineteen men from Gamou's militia served as French guides during the Battle of Tigharghar.[24] He was recalled to Bamako that March over differences with French forces over the role of the MNLA.[25] In September, Gamou captured Anefif alongside Malian army general Didier Dacko.[11] He was promoted to brigadier general on September 18.[26]
On the night between November 18 and 19, two members of Gamou's family were murdered and two more were injured in the village of Intakabar. Gamou, who was in Bamako at the time, asserted that the perpetrators were Fulani from MUJAO.[27]
Between May 17 and 21, 2014, Gamou commanded Malian forces during the second and third battles of Kidal. Faisal Ag Kiba, Gamou's right-hand man, was killed in the third battle on May 21.[28]
Imghad Tuareg Self-Defense Group and Allies (GATIA)
In August 2014, Gamou founded GATIA, a pro-government Imghad Tuareg militia. Gamou did not officially sponsor the militia, however, due to his role in the Malian Army.[29][30] Several prominent members of the Malian army criticized Gamou for this, claiming he went off his own interests. Malian president Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta did not fully trust Gamou, but tolerated him due to support from Dacko, who was chief of staff.[11]
GATIA and the Coordination of Azawad Movements fought in Kidal in late 2015, before signing the Algiers Accords in October 2015.[31] In 2016, the CMA allowed GATIA and Gamou to enter Kidal, establishing a presence in Takellote.[32] Clashes soon broke out in the city between the Imghads of GATIA and the Ifoghas of the High Council for the Unity of Azawad.[33] Following the battle, Gamou was forced out of the city.[33]
Gamou was appointed Inspector General of the Malian Army in February 2019, but was removed by Assimi Goïta in 2021.[35] Gamou was seriously injured in the arm in an ISGS ambush during the Battle of Andéramboukane.[35]
During a Malian army counteroffensive against the Coordination of Azawad Movements and CSP-PSD, Gamou assisted in capturing Kidal.[36] He was subsequently appointed governor of the region on November 22, 2023.[36]
The Battle of Aguelhok occurred when rebels from the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) and Islamists groups Ansar Dine and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb attacked a Malian army garrison base in the town of Aguelhok, Kidal Region of Northern Mali on 17 January 2012, as part of the larger Tuareg rebellion to seize all government bases in the region.
The first battle of Menaka is an attack led on January 17, 2012, by armed groups of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) and marks the beginning of the Tuareg rebellion of 2012. This is the first in a series of battles aimed a capturing most of the north Mali from the army by the rebels.
The first battle of Kidal took place during the Mali war. On 30 March 2012, the city was captured by rebel MNLA and Ansar Dine forces.
The Imghad Tuareg Self-Defense Group and Allies is an armed group in Azawad, Mali. Most of its 500 to 1,000 fighters are Imghad Tuaregs, and the group supports the Malian government.
The Movement for the Salvation of Azawad is a Tuareg political movement and armed group in Azawad, Mali. It was founded on 2 September 2016 by Moussa Ag Acharatoumane.
Ba Ag Moussa was a Malian militant and jihadist.
The Battle of Andéramboukane occurred between 4 and 5 June 2022, during the Ménaka offensive of the Mali War. The pro-government militias Movement for the Salvation of Azawad (MSA) and Imghad Tuareg Self-Defense Group and Allies (GATIA) attempted to retake the Islamic State-held town of Andéramboukane but were unsuccessful.
On January 15, 2019, militants from the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara attacked two villages in Ménaka, Mali, killing at least 40 people. The massacres were targeted against Tuaregs.
The Ménaka offensive was a series of offensives launched by the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara against the Malian Army, Tuareg self-defense groups including the Movement for the Salvation of Azawad (MSA) and Imghad Tuareg Self-Defense Group and Allies (GATIA), and the al-Qaeda-aligned Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin. The offensives took place in the Ménaka Cercle, in southeastern Mali.
Assalat Ag Habi is a Malian Tuareg soldier and a founder of the Movement for the Salvation of Azawad.
The High Council for the Unity of Azawad (HCUA) (French: Haut conseil pour l'unité de l'Azawad) is a Tuareg political movement formed on May 2, 2013, during the Mali War. The movement was initially called the High Council of Azawad (HCA) (French: Haut conseil de l'Azawad) before changing its name on May 19, 2013.
On July 26, 2017, clashes broke out between the pro-government GATIA Imghad Tuareg militia and anti-government Idnane Tuareg rebels from the Coordination of Azawad Movements.
The battle of Kidal took place between July 21 and 22, 2016 between GATIA, a pro-government militia consisting of Imghad Tuaregs, against the Coordination of Azawad Movements, consisting of Ifoghas Tuaregs.
On October 16, 2014, clashes broke out between the pro-government GATIA miltiia and the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad in N'Tillit, Mali.
Between July 19 and 22, 2014, pro-government rebels from GATIA and other militias clashed with rebels from the MNLA, HCUA, and dissident MAA in Tabankort, rural Gao Region, Mali. Clashes were paused after MINUSMA intervened.
On July 11, 2014, clashes broke out between pro-government militias led by GATIA and rebel militias led by the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) in Anefif, Mali. The battle was the first major confrontation between pro-government militias and rebel groups since the start of the Mali War in 2012.
On February 6, 2014, between thirty-one and thirty-five Imghad Tuareg civilians were massacred by Fulani militants that may have been connected to the jihadist outfit Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWA) in and around Tamkoutat, Ménaka Region, Mali.
On November 8, 2013, clashes broke out between Malian forces and the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) in Amazragane, Ménaka Region, Mali.
On June 5, 2013, clashes broke out between the Malian Army and the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) in the village of Anefis. Malian forces entered and quickly captured the town, leading to diplomatic pushback from the MNLA.
On May 23, 2006, the May 23, 2006 Democratic Alliance for Change (ADC) simultaneously mutinied in the cities of Kidal and Ménaka, sparking the 2006 Tuareg rebellion. The mutinies were the first and only major action of the rebellion, which came to an end in the July 2006 Algiers Accords.
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Libya (1980-1988)
Mali (1996-present)
GATIA (2014-present)
