ASC-075287668-2887-01

REBELLION: AL-JEBHA 265We have created [the FPLA] after the failed treason of the Azawad people and wehave called it the Front Populaire de Libération de l'Azawad, in reaction to what iscalled “the Tamanrasset Agreement” which seems to us to be a treason of some kindto our revolutionary principles: It is a reactionary position, our objective being theliberation of the people of the Azawad from the oppression it is suffering since theFrench have left. 26From the start of the rebellion in June 1990 to the start of negotiations inTamanrasset in December that year, almost all attacks against the MalianArmed Forces took place in the Adagh. This changed after the TamanrassetAgreement in January 1991. The military campaign launched by the FPLA inFebruary 1991 was concentrated on the Azawad plain and the villages on thebanks of the Niger River. From there, the attacks spread further south and west,towards the Région of Timbuktu and the interior of the Niger Bend. In May1991, the FPLA even struck as far south as Gossi and Léré. The relocation ofthe conflict is linked to the schisms within the movement. The schism thatbrought about the FPLA in January 1991 meant a separation between the KelAdagh and all the other Tamasheq fractions in the movement. However, localpolitics within the Tamasheq community, tewsit affiliation and the logic ofTamasheq society played their part as well. The larger part of the FPLA fighterscame from fractions residing in the Azawad and Tamesna plains, and in theNiger Bend. The most important fractions and tribes represented in the FPLAwere the Kel Intessar, the Chemennamas, the Ishidenharen, the Dabakar and theDaoussahak. The Kel Intessar had been at the heart of Tamasheq political lifeduring the late colonial period. The Chemennamas, Ishidenharen and Dabakarfractions live in the Azawad and Tamesna plains east of the Adagh and towardsGao. In fact, Djebock, the hamlet falling victim to the FPLA’s second attack, isseen as the ‘capital’ of the Chemennamas. This is not coincidental either, as theleader of the FPLA, Rhissa ag Sidi Mohamed, was a Chemennamas. In order tounderstand the division between the Kel Adagh and the other fractions weshould look at the history of the movement and to the Tamanrasset Agreement.Until 1990 Tamasheq resistance against the Malian state had been largely aKel Adagh affair. They had started Alfellaga in 1963; they had been at the basisof the creation of the Tanekra movement; they had delivered most volunteersfor the Lebanon contingent; and after their return these fighters had revived andrestructured the defunct movement in Libya. The Ifoghas claimed leadershipwithin the movement.In fact, objectively, the Ifoghas are the spearhead of the Adagh and the Adagh nIfoghas is the spearhead of the Tuareg in Mali in general. This is a fact. (...) The26‘Rhissa ag Sidi Mohamed, l’intransigeant colonel’, Mauritanie Nouvelles, July1992.