{"id":5358,"date":"2026-04-29T09:36:03","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T09:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/home\/makosso-ii-government-recycles-old-guard-in-brazzaville"},"modified":"2026-04-29T09:44:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T09:44:33","slug":"makosso-ii-government-recycles-old-guard-in-brazzaville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/articles\/makosso-ii-government-recycles-old-guard-in-brazzaville","title":{"rendered":"Makosso II Government Recycles Old Guard in Brazzaville"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press. <\/strong> <\/span>When, at dawn on Saturday, a car bomb penetrated the security barrier in the city of Kati and destroyed the home of Malian Defense Minister Sadio Camara, bullets were fired at the same time in Kidal, Gao, Sevare and areas of Bamako.<\/p>\n

The attack was not separate, but rather one joint operation between the “Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin”, which is linked to Al-Qaeda, and the Tuareg “Azawad Liberation Front” against the regime of General, head of the ruling military junta, Assimi Goita.<\/p>\n

Memory of 2012… from partnership to fighting<\/b><\/p>\n

Although the coordination between the two groups (Support for Islam and Muslims and the Front for the Liberation of Azawad) seemed remarkable given the major differences between them, it is not the first of its kind, as the two groups are an extension of other existing groups, some of which have been active in northern Mali for more than two decades.<\/p>\n

The Ansar Dine group (which formed with other groups the Group to Support Islam and Muslims) allied in 2012 with the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, which represents the Tuareg, and is an important part and a major component of the Front for the Liberation of Azawad. This alliance was able to invade large areas of northern Mali in 2012, where it controlled the major cities in that region.<\/p>\n

Following the collapse of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in Libya, and the influx of Tuareg fighters from Libya to northern Mali, and within a few weeks, the Malian army’s grip on Gao, Timbuktu, and Kidal collapsed, and the National Movement declared the independence of the “State of Azawad” on April 6, 2012, but the partnership between the two parties did not last long, due to disagreement over issues including the identity of the desired state and the powers between the components of the coalition.<\/p>\n

Iyad Ag Ghali…the bridge between the two worlds<\/p>\n

The personality of Ag Ghali himself explains what seems impossible, according to his biography published by Le Monde newspaper. Ghali was born in 1958 in Kidal from the Ifoghas Tuareg tribe. He immigrated to Libya in the 1970s during a drought, then led the Tuareg rebellion in 1990, before working as a Malian diplomat in Jeddah, then a mediator with Al-Qaeda in hostage deals. He is Tuareg by birth, Ifoghasi by tribe. Islamic by ideology.<\/p>\n

When the “National Movement” rejected his leadership in 2011 due to his Islamic tendencies, he founded “Ansar Dine”, which later turned into the “Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims” in 2017, after other groups joined it. This personal bridge makes him today the mediator capable of bringing together the components of the “Support for Islam and Muslims” and the “Front de Liberation de Azawad” under one roof.<\/p>\n

“Front de Liberation de Azawad”… was born out of the collapse of the settlement<\/b><\/p>\n

The Front for the Liberation of Azawad (FLA) was founded in November 2024, merging the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, the Supreme Council for the Unity of Azawad and other factions, explicitly demanding independence or autonomy for Azawad. Its birth came in response to Bamako\u2019s withdrawal from the Algiers Peace Agreement (2015), the only ceiling under which the Tuareg forces accepted to lay down arms.<\/p>\n

Negotiations prepared for the present moment<\/b><\/p>\n

The current rapprochement was not improvised. In March 2025, a delegation from the Association of Azawad Scholars met a delegation from Nusrat al-Islam, and the Front announced its acceptance of the application of Sharia law and its rejection of secularism, and asked the group to renounce allegiance to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, according to the African Perceptions platform concerned with North African and Sahel affairs, a condition that was not met.<\/p>\n

Since mid-2025, the American Jamestown Institute has monitored successive ambushes carried out by the two movements against the Malian forces and the Russian \u201cAfrican Corps\u201d, in a chronological sequence that suggests actual coordination.<\/p>\n

What brings two contradictory parties together?<\/p>\n

Three factors explain this unprecedented alliance:<\/p>\n

The common enemy: The two sides face one force, which is the Malian army and the African Legion.<\/p>\n

Common roots: Most of the fighters of the two groups come from the same regions in Mali (north and centre), and Iyad Ghali, who belongs tribally and geographically to the Kidal Tuareg, represents a linking element between the two groups, and the Jamestown Institute believes that his past as a Tuareg nationalist may make him open to bridging the gap between the two movements.<\/p>\n

Finally, the collapse of the negotiating alternative after the cancellation of the Algiers Agreement.<\/p>\n

Despite this, solid boundaries remain facing this alliance, especially with regard to alliances, intellectual and ideological differences, the view of the future identity of the state and its borders, and other contradictions.<\/p>\n

The outstanding question remains: Is what we see a marriage of convenience that will soon end, as happened in 2012, or a profound reshaping of the maps of conflict in the Sahel, bringing together, in a rare case, a Tuareg nationalist wing and a jihadist wing under one banner in the face of a fragile state? Perhaps the answer lies in the hands of Iyad Ag Ghali alone, the man who sits at the crossroads of the two worlds and has crossed between them many times.<\/p>\n

Find more news and analyses on Africa<\/span> on the Africa Press<\/span> website<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press. When, at dawn on Saturday, a car bomb penetrated the security barrier in the city of Kati and destroyed the home of Malian Defense Minister Sadio Camara, bullets were fired at the same time in Kidal, Gao, Sevare and areas of Bamako. The attack was not separate, but rather one joint operation between the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":5357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84],"tags":[120],"class_list":{"0":"post-5358","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-articles","8":"tag-africa"},"yoast_head":"\nMakosso II Government Recycles Old Guard in Brazzaville - Africa Press English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"-article-header-tag"> Africa-Press. 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