Iyad ag Ghali

Ansar Eddine led by the Malian Tuareg Iyad ag Ghali had recently pulled out of talks with the government and the secular Mouvement national de libération de l’Azawad (MNLA) brokered by Burkina Faso...

So far talks brokered by Burkina’s President Blaise Compaoré suggest that the mainly Malian Tuareg rebel groups – the nationalist Mouvement national pour la libération de l’Azawad and the Islamist Ansar Eddine led by veteran Tuareg politician Iyad ag Ghali – may be willing to seek a political settlement with Bamako...

The media seized on one point in the UN report: a meeting between some unnamed people from Gbagbo’s side with Ansar Eddine the Salafist group under Iyad ag Ghali that controls the Malian city of Timbuktu...

Veteran Tuareg leader Iyad ag Ghali though looks far more approachable than his AQIM and MUJAO counterparts...

Burkina Faso's President Blaise Compaoré the official mediator has been dealing with Iyad ag Ghali's Ansar Eddine while contacts with the Mouvement pour l'unicité et le jihad en Afrique de l'Ouest (MUJAO) are handled by President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria whom Ouattara values highly as a regional partner...

Having once spearheaded the Tuareg revolt the MNLA has allowed its ‘temporary’ allies in AQIM and its affiliates the Mouvement pour l’unicité et le jihad en Afrique de l’Ouest (MUJAO) and chiefly Ansar Eddine led by veteran Tuareg rebel Iyad ag Ghali to hijack the rebellion...

Ansar Eddine (Supporters of the Religion the Islamist group led by veteran Tuareg warrior Iyad ag Ghali) Al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and the Mouvement pour l’unicité et le jihad en Afrique de l’Ouest (MUJAO) have consistently outmanoeuvred the MNLA...

The Mouvement national pour la libération de l’Azawad (MNLA) had previously denounced any notion of a state based on religion and the jihadists of Iyad ag Ghali’s Ansar Eddine opposed a nation state...

Meanwhile in the northern city of Gao the probable seat of a new northern provisional government the nationalist Mouvement national pour la libération de l’Azawad (MNLA) is in tense and problematic negotiations with Iyad ag Ghali his jihadist Ansar Eddine movement and their allies from Al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)...