| Toulousimine ambush | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Tuareg rebellion (2007–2009) | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Mali | ATNM | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| El Hadj Ag Gamou Ould Meydou Baba Ahmed | Ibrahim Ag Bahanga | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | 10-20 killed 9-25 prisoners 15 injured | ||||||
On January 22, 2009, Tuareg rebels of the Niger-Mali Tuareg Alliance ambushed Malian forces in Toulousimine, near Boghassa, Mali, but were pushed back by Malian forces.
In 2007, a rebellion broke out among Tuareg militants over the lack of implementation of a peace agreement that ended the Tuareg rebellion of 2006. In January 2009, Malian forces were in the middle of Operation Djugitugu, and had attacked and captured a base of the Tuareg rebel group Niger-Mali Tuareg Alliance. [1] The Malian forces were commanded by Ould Meydou, a prominent Malian Arab commander, and former associates of ATNM commander Ibrahim Ag Bahanga. [1]
On January 20, 2009, Malian forces announced the capture of an ATNM base at Tinsalak, and that the surrounding area was under the control of Malian forces under the command of El Hadj Ag Gamou, Ould Meydou, Ag Cherif, Faisal, and Baba Ahmed. [2] The capture of Tinsalak was carried out by regular Malian troops. [2] However, two days after the capture of Tinsalak, Malian forces were ambushed by ATNM fighters in Toulousimine. The fighters were pushed back though, and retreated on four vehicles. Malian security sources stated twenty rebels were killed and twenty-five prisoners were taken, including fifteen injured. A source close to notable leaders in Kidal instead stated ten fighters were killed and nine were captured. Three vehicles were recovered by Malian forces and several others were burned. [3] [4]
The failed ambush at Toulousimine was one of the last major attacks carried out by the ATNM during the Tuareg rebellion, and cemented the fracture between Ibrahim Ag Bahanga's faction of the ATNM and the remaining fighters of the May 23, 2006 Democratic Alliance for Change (ADC). Bahanga and a small group of fighters fled to Algeria shortly afterward, and other fighters surrendered to the Malian Army. [5]
The 2007-2009 Tuareg rebellion was an insurgency that began in February 2007 amongst elements of the Tuareg people living in the Sahara desert regions of northern Mali and Niger. It is one of a series of insurgencies by formerly nomadic Tuareg populations, which had last appeared in the mid-1990s, and date back at least to 1916. Populations dispersed to Algeria and Libya, as well as to the south of Niger and Mali in the 1990s returned only in the late 1990s. Former fighters were to be integrated into national militaries, but the process has been slow and caused increased resentment. Malian Tuaregs had conducted some raids in 2005–2006, which ended in a renewed peace agreement. Fighting in both nations was carried on largely in parallel, but not in concert. While fighting was mostly confined to guerrilla attacks and army counterattacks, large portions of the desert north of each nation were no-go zones for the military and civilians fled to regional capitals like Kidal, Mali and Agadez, Niger. Fighting was largely contained within Mali's Kidal Region and Niger's Agadez Region. Algeria helped negotiate an August 2008 Malian peace deal, which was broken by a rebel faction in December, crushed by the Malian military and wholescale defections of rebels to the government. Niger saw heavy fighting and disruption of uranium production in the mountainous north, before a Libyan backed peace deal, aided by a factional split among the rebels, brought a negotiated ceasefire and amnesty in May 2009.
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