Tuareg Rebellion
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The Tuareg Rebellion was an uprising of the 1990s by various Tuareg groups in Niger and Mali with the aim of achieving autonomy or forming their own nation-state.
[edit] Background
Tuareg people form a distinct minority in all the Saharan countries they inhabit and a majority in many Saharan regions. In many cases, the Tuareg have been marginalised by governments based in the Sahel or on the Mediterranean coast. Desertification and droughts in 1972-74 and 84-85 killed livestock and forced the alteration of traditional migration routes, increasing conflict between neighbouring groups. Aid from national governments was often unforthcoming, and many sided against the Tuareg - one notable exception being Libya.
The rising began in 1990 when Tuareg separatists attacked government buildings around Gao in Mali. The Malian Army's reprisals led to a full-blown rebellion in which the absence of opportunities for Tuareg in the army was a major complaint. The conflict died down after Alpha Konaré formed a new government and made reparations in 1992.
When promised aid from Ali Saïbou's government in Niger for Tuareg returned from Algeria failed to materialise, some Tuareg attacked a police station in Tchin-Tabaradene. Initially their main call was for the right for their children to learn Tamashek at school, but this soon escalated to a demand for autonomy. The two main rebel groups in Niger, the Front for the Liberation of Air and Azaouak and Front for the Liberation of Tamoust, agreed a truce in 1994, just as war flared up again in Mali.
[edit] Mali Civil War, 1990-1996
Tuareg, probably trained and armed by Libya, attacked Gao, which again led to major Malian Army reprisals and to the creation of the Ghanda Koi Songhai militia to combat the Tuareg. Mali effectively fell into a civil war.
In 1995, moderates on both sides negotiated a peace settlement. In the same year, the main Tuareg groups in Niger signed a peace treaty with the Government of Niger in Ouagadougou, the final armed group signing up in 1998.
In Mali, weapons were ceremonially burnt in 1996 in Timbuktu as a symbolic conclusion to the conflict. Aid has since been given to the Tuareg areas of the country and separatism has declined. The situation, however, remains tense with fears that the conflict may be renewed.
