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330 EPILOGUEHe quickly became the commander ad interim of the 1st military region (Gao),to occupy that post formally in 2005. 26 While Elhajj Gamou and a small numberof Kel Tamasheq from outside the Ifoghas tribe made good career progress, thecareer of the main Ifoghas (Iforgoumoussen) officer in active service, Hassan agFagaga, stagnated. This added to the Ifoghas perception that they were loosingtheir power. An imghad officer and former ARLA fighter commanded the militaryin the North and could thus put pressure behind the reintegration of theimghad within the Adagh. Probably in disgruntlement with being passed overand being overtaken in rank, and in fear of the shifting power balance, LieutenantColonel Hassan ag Fagaga deserted his post shortly after Elhajj Gamou’spromotion. 27 After negotiations, he agreed to return to a new post in Timbuktu,but he did not present himself at the barracks. Instead he defected for good inMarch 2006, taking a small number of Tamasheq soldiers from the Adagh withhim into Mount Tigharghar. President Amadou Toumani Touré then sent Iyadag Ghali to mediate, but to no avail. Under unclear circumstances Iyad evenended up joining the deserted soldiers, perhaps in a bid to keep his own powerbase as leader of the former rebels intact, perhaps even to put more pressure onthe Kel Effele in the undeclared struggle over the chieftaincy of the Ifoghas.They were soon joined by Ibrahim Bahanga, a clansman to Hassan ag Fagaga,and a group of his followers, among whom his half brother Moussa Bâ, anofficer at the army base in Ménaka. On 22 May 2006 this group of prominentformer rebels of Ifoghas origins seized a large amount of weapons and materialfrom the army bases in Kidal and Ménaka and occupied Kidal city. Contrary tothe situation in 1992, the material was not taken over violently as it was handedover by integrated Kel Tamasheq officers within both bases who joined thegroup around Iyad, Ibrahim, and Hassan. On 23 May 2006 the group announcedits formal existence as the Alliance Démocratique du 23 Mai pour le Changement(ADC). They posted their main demands in June on their own website:Azawad-union.blogspot.com. The demands remained rather vague, evoking anunequal development between Northern Mali and ‘useful Mali’ and the lack ofimplementation of the National Pact of 1992.The greater North, a desert deserted by the central authorities in Bamako, cannoteven pretend to any form of stability in face of a developmental crevice literallydividing the country in two: The useful Mali [le Mali utile] and the rest (…).In its days, the National Pact had raised hopes, unfortunately snuffed out sincethen. The revenues of the country and the scarce development aid are unidirecti-2627Sylla, C. ‘Elhajj Gamou, patriote dans l’ âme’, Le Républicain, 08/02/2006. http://www.malikounda.com/nouvelle_voir.php?idNouvelle=8336.Unless indicated otherwise, the following narrative elements on the events sinceMay 2006 are based on Vallet, M., “Chronique de la vie au Sahara”. Le Saharien177 (2 nd semester 2006) – 187 (4 th semester 2008); and on Saint-Girons, A. 2008.