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EPILOGUE 337besieging the Malian Armed Forces in Northern Mali in their army bases in Tin-Zaouatene,making use of landmines, which lost him the last bit of supportfrom outside the limited circles of insurgents. 41 His tactical strongpoint howeverremained his ability to take relatively large numbers of military hostages, whichgave him a position of relative safety and negotiation. Looking for outsidesupport to quell the continued upsurge, President Touré managed successfullyto depict Bahanga and his men as ordinary drug traffickers and possible al-Qaeda affiliates, which led to continued US and French military assistance. Yet,Touré seemed to have remained determined to solve the insurgency with as fewcasualties as possible. In December 2007 negotiations under Algerian mediationled Bahanga to release 10 of the 36 soldiers he had taken captive in the previousmonths. However, during April and May 2008, Bahanga launched a massiveoffensive against the Malian Armed Forces, leaving 63 Malian soldiers dead, 67wounded, 33 newly captured (bringing the total number of hostages to 59), and12 cars, 4 BRDM armour carriers and a helicopter destroyed, with another 5cars taken. On 6 May 2008 Bahanga’s men ventured far south to attack thearmy base at Diabaly in the Région of Segu, about 500 km from Bamako,proving that the hyper-mobile warfare tactics of the 1990s had not been forgotten.42 This attack caused outrage among the Malian public, but PresidentTouré’s decision not to perform punitive counter attacks in the North provokedeven greater outcry, and insults were levelled at him. 43 After Bahanga’s offensive,Mu’ammar Qadhafi offered his mediation, which was accepted by bothsides. From then on, Tripoli would become the main mediator in a conflict thatwas more and more seen as one between a group of armed bandits and theGovernment. Given the lack of coherent political demands from his side,Bahanga’s position indeed came closer and closer to that of Alla ag Albachir,who defied authorities for the sake of defiance itself. The difference betweenboth men seems to be that Alla is a very popular historical memory among allKel Adagh and beyond, while Ibrahim Bahanga is widely unpopular amongmany Kel Adagh and certainly beyond the Adagh, where constant fear of retaliationon all Kel Tamasheq for Bahanga’s deeds is not unfounded. This wasnot without reason. In September 2008, Ganda Koy was revived under the nameGanda Djio: the Son of the Land. Its first act was to kill four Kel Tamasheqherdsmen. Still, President Amadou Toumani Touré remained determined to414243IRIN-WA, “Mali: Indignation dominates reaction as attacks in north escalate”.31/08/2007. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74058http://atnmc.blogspot.com/During a call radio programme discussing Bahanga’s attack, one caller simply respondedwith the outcry ‘ATT is his father’s genitals’, a major insult in Bamanakanthat quickly became Bamako’s most popular ringtone. Personal communicationGreg Mann.