Haroun Ag Said | |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Abou Jemal |
| Died | April 29, 2014 Borisa, Kidal Region, Mali |
| Allegiance |  Mali (1997-2006)ADC (2006)  Ansar Dine (2012-2014) |
| Rank | Lieutenant-colonel (Mali) Emir (Ansar Dine) |
| Battles / wars | Tuareg rebellion (1990-1996) Tuareg rebellion (2006) Mali War |
Haroun Ag Said, nom de guerre Abou Jamal, was a Malian Tuareg rebel and commander, and a close confidant of Iyad Ag Ghaly.
Little is known about Said's early life. Said took part in the Tuareg rebellion of the 1990s, where he was seriously injured in the throat. [1] Following the peace agreements that concluded the rebellion, he joined the Malian Army. [1] He served for seven years as a second lieutenant in the Léré garrison and was company commander in Diabaly for a time. [2] [1] During this time, he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. [3]
Said deserted from the army in 2006 to join the May 23, 2006 Democratic Alliance for Change (ADC) and fought under Iyad Ag Ghaly. He disarmed following the Algiers Accords. [1] In May 2008, he led fifty men in an attack on the garrison in Diabaly, killing one Malian soldier. [2] He rejoined Iyad Ag Ghaly in Ansar Dine when the Mali War broke out in 2012, and was said to be his right-hand man and a senior figure in the movement. [3] In January 2013, he commanded jihadist forces at the Battle of Diabaly. While he captured the city, he was forced to flee due to French intervention. [2]
Said was killed on April 29, 2014, by French special forces in Borisa, Kidal Region. According to MINUSMA, he and two other fighters were killed in a vehicle. [3] A French army spokesman, without naming Said, stated a militant "died with weapons in his hands", and claimed two other combatants surrendered to French forces. [1]
The May 23, 2006 Democratic Alliance for Change is a Malian Tuareg rebel group, formed in 2006 by ex-combatants from the 1990s Tuareg insurgency in Mali. In 2007, splinters of the organisation returned to combat in northern Mali, launching the Malian element of the 2007 Tuareg insurgency. Led by Ibrahim Ag Bahanga, this ADC faction continued to operate under that name, despite most elements remaining under ceasefire. In July 2008, most of these elements, along with much of the splinter following Ag Bahanga reached another accord with the Malian government in Algiers. Ag Bahanga and a faction of that group rejected the accord and fled to Libya. At the end of 2008, this faction returned to fighting, operating under the name Alliance Touaregue Nord Mali Pour Le Changement (ATNMC). The government of Mali has contended since 2007 that the Ag Bahanga faction of the ADC is a "band of marginals" who were "isolated from the heart of the Tuareg community", primarily motivated by lucrative Trans-Saharan smuggling operations operating from Ag Bahanga's home town of Tin-Zaouatene. Ag Bahanga and the other leaders of his faction contend that the government of Mali oppresses the Tuareg population of the north, and has repeatedly failed to live up to its agreements with the ADC and other groups. Outside observers have also speculated that internal rivalries between Tuareg from the Kel Adagh and the Ouilliminden confederations have frustrated peace attempts.
Iyad Ag Ghaly, also known as Abū al-Faḍl, is a Tuareg Islamist militant from Mali's Kidal Region. He has been active in Tuareg rebellions against the Malian government since the 1980s – particularly in the early 1990s. In 1988, he founded the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Azawad. In the latest episode of the Tuareg upheavals in 2012, he featured as the founder and leader of the Islamist militant group Ansar Dine.
Mohamed Ag Najem is an Azawadi colonel, who is the chief of staff of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) army.
The Mali War is an ongoing conflict that started in January 2012 between the northern and southern parts of Mali in Africa. On 16 January 2012, several insurgent groups began fighting a campaign against the Malian government for independence or greater autonomy for northern Mali, which they called Azawad. The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), an organization fighting to make this area of Mali an independent homeland for the Tuareg people, had taken control of the region by April 2012.
Ibrahim Ag Bahanga was a Tuareg rebel who fought in several Tuareg rebellions between 1990 and 2011. He was one of the founders of the May 23, 2006 Democratic Alliance for Change, and became the sole leader of the Tuareg rebellion in 2009 after the rest of the ADC signed peace agreements.
The Battle of Konna was a battle in the Northern Mali Conflict in the town of Konna in central Mali. Various Islamic fundamentalist rebels fought with the government of Mali, the latter of which was supported by French soldiers participating in Operation Serval. This battle was among the first French engagements in their intervention in the Mali War.
The Battle of Diabaly was fought between government forces of Mali, against groups of Islamists militants such as the AQIM and Ansar Dine. The Islamists held control of Diabaly for no longer than a week until Malian forces with the help French air strikes recaptured the town.
Ba Ag Moussa was a Malian militant and jihadist.
The battle of Farimake took place between November 22 and 23, 2018, between French forces of Operation Barkhane and Katibat Macina, a regional variant of Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin. French forces launched an assault on Katiba Macina, claiming to have killed their leader Amadou Koufa.
Hassan Ag Fagaga, born around 1959 or 1966, in Kidal, Mali, was a Malian soldier and a Tuareg rebel.
The Inaghalawass skirmish took place on February 14, 2018, between French forces and Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin fighters. In French airstrikes, former al-Mourabitoun commander Abu Hassan al-Ansari was killed.
El Hadj Ag Gamou, born December 31, 1964, in Tidermène, Mali, is an Imghad Tuareg Malian division general. Gamou is currently the governor of Kidal Region since November 22, 2023, and has also been the head of his faction of Imghad Tuareg Self-Defense Group and Allies since the group's foundation. Prior to his governorship, Gamou served in the Malian army, commanding Malian troops against Ansar Dine and the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) in the early stages of the Mali War.
The raid on Tin Biden occurred between October 23 and 24, 2017, between French forces of Operation Barkhane and Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin in the remote wadi of Tin Biden, Kidal Region, Mali. In the battle, French forces killed eleven Malian prisoners of war held captive by JNIM.
On March 5, 2017, jihadists from Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin attacked Malian forces in Boulikessi. The attack was the first by JNIM since its inception that month.
Between December 24–25, 2015, Ansar Dine militants attacked National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) positions in Talahandak, Mali. Ansar Dine captured the MNLA outpost, and then ambushed CMA reinforcements.
Mahri Sidi Amar Ben Daha, nom de guerre Yoro Ould Daha, was a Malian Arab warlord who fought in Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWA) and the Arab Movement of Azawad's pro-government faction.
Hamada Ag Hama, also known as Abdelkrim Taleb or Abdelkrim al-Targui was a Malian jihadist and emir of Katiba Al Ansar, a brigade in Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
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.
The Tuareg rebellion of 2006 was a short-lived rebellion by Tuareg notables demanding more autonomy for Kidal Region between May 23 and July 4, 2006. The rebellion began with mutinies by Tuareg officers integrated into the Malian army following the Tuareg rebellion of the 1990s, and mediation between the Malian government and the May 23, 2006 Democratic Alliance for Change (ADC) began immediately afterwards. The mediation culminated in the Algiers Accords of 2006, although the same Tuareg leaders during the 2006 rebellion went on to ally with Nigerien Tuareg rebels during the Tuareg rebellion of 2007 to 2009.
Djamel Okacha, nom de guerre Yahia Abou al-Hamman, was an Algerian jihadist who fought in the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) and later Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM). Okacha served as the commanders of Katiba al-Furqan and Katiba al-Mulathamoun within AQIM, and was appointed as the co-governor of Tombouctou Region during Ansar Dine's capture of the region during the 2012 Tuareg rebellion. Okacha was then appointed as the second-in-command of AQIM between 2012 and 2017, where he co-founded JNIM alongside Iyad Ag Ghaly and Amadou Kouffa. Okacha served as the second-in-command of JNIM until his death in 2019.