Mali: Clashes show cracks in alliance of Tuaregs and Islamists
An alliance of Mali's ethnic Tuareg separatist group on one hand, and a radical Islamist group on the other was bound to be shaky. Now there are reports that fighting has broken out between them.
An alliance of Mali's ethnic Tuareg separatist group on one hand, and a radical Islamist group on the other was bound to be shaky. Now there are reports that fighting has broken out between them.
鈥⒙犅�A version of this post appeared on the blog聽"Sahel Blog."聽The views expressed are the author's own.
On May 26, the two strongest rebel groups in northern Mali, the National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad (MNLA, where 鈥淎zawad鈥� refers to the idea of an independent Tuareg-ethnic state in the area) and Ansar Dine (Arabic, Ansar al Din: 鈥淒efenders of the Faith鈥�), agreed to an alliance. Their merger was supposed to represent a compromise 鈥� the MNLA agreed to impose some version of shari鈥檃 law, as Ansar Dine wished, while Ansar Dine endorsed the MNLA鈥檚 vision of an independent Azawad.
The merger quickly began falling apart, though. The last two weeks have seen stories proclaiming that the聽pact was dead, or that the聽two sides were still talking聽in efforts to salvage the agreement.聽Whether and how to implement shari鈥檃 is a major sticking point.聽IRIN聽and聽France24聽have published detailed analyses of the MNLA-Ansar Dine relationship.
Earlier this week, AFP reported that tensions increased when聽protests occurred in Kidal, one of the north鈥檚 three provincial capitals:
Ansar Dine appears to have taken the protests as provocation by the MNLA, and the two sides clashed last night, AFP reports, in聽Kidal:
It is hard for me to tell whether either side scored a clear victory. AFP says, however, 鈥淐alm had returned by dawn Friday, an official said, but he noted that several MNLA flags had been removed from around the city.鈥�
AFP and a Malian journalist it quotes partly frame the two groups鈥� conflict as 鈥渢ribal.鈥� One of my weaknesses as an analyst is that I tend to minimize the importance of 鈥渢ribal鈥� affiliations. On the other hand, I am wary of the supposed explanatory power of 鈥渢ribes,鈥� which sometimes turn out to be less clearly defined entities than outsiders suppose. To me, the conflict between the MNLA and Ansar Dine seems like it centers on serious political disagreements over how northern Mali should be run. And from the reporting, it appears that the efforts to salvage their merger are failing, which means more conflict may be on the way.
鈥撀燗lex Thurston聽is a PhD student studying Islam in聽Africa聽at聽Northwestern University聽and blogs at聽Sahel Blog.