Visiting members of the UN Security Council in New York last month the Azawad leaders Bilal ag Acherif and Alghabass ag Intallah pressed for the return of refugees and a census in the north as well as the rapid opening of the Kidal and Timbuktu cantonment camps for fighters from armed groups...
The Intalla family which effectively runs Kidal is led by HCUA Secretary General Alghabass ag Intalla once part of the jihadist Ansar Eddine and with a reputation for changing sides (AC Vol 54 No 3 The end of the beginning & Alghabass ag Intallah changes sides)...
Despite the killing in late February of Abdel Hamid Abou Zeid a prominent commander from Al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) other key Islamist leaders are still at large including Iyad ag Ghali the founder of Ansar Eddine (AC Vol 54 No 3 Alghabass ag Intallah changes sides)...
That rules out the Mouvement national pour la libération de l’Azawad (MNLA) and the Mouvement islamique de l’Azawad (MIA) which peeled off from Ansar Eddine last month (AC Vol 54 No 3 The end of the beginning & Alghabass ag Intallah changes sides)...
Alghabass ag Intallah son and heir of the Amenokal (traditional leader) of the Tuareg’s leading Kel Afella clan will be at the core of the bargaining...
He is in a strong position (see Box Alghabass ag Intallah changes sides): as the occupying jihadists fled his new Mouvement islamique de l’Azawad (MIA) was the first force into Kidal – helped by the secular Tuareg Mouvement national pour la libération de l’Azawad...
Last June as jihadists consolidated their grip on northern Mali Alghabass ag Intallah joined Ansar Eddine to the surprise of many in the region...
Yet Alghabass ag Intallah has a history of navigating on both sides of the line between asserting the Tuareg cause politically and militarily...
’ Yet his son and heir Alghabass ag Intallah has bewildered many by joining Ansar Eddine...
Such is the mistrust which the MNLA harbours for Ag Ghali that a tribal leader Alghabass ag Intallah – the heir apparent of the powerful Ifoghas people National Assembly member and a former confidant of Ag Ghali’s – signed the accord in his stead...
