Context
- Key Dates in The Tuareg Rebellion
- Festival In the Desert Report - 2001
- Music of a Forgotten War
Chronology of the Touareg Rebellion
| Date | Place | Event |
| >1900 | - | Before colonisation, the Touaregs are run by self-governing confederations of tribes. The coloniser find it hard to suppress these tribes and meet stiff resistence from chiefs like Kaoussen in the Air and Fihroun in Azawagh. Having brought the tribes under control the coloniser proceed to break up the confederations and reduce the Touaregs into small fractious tribal groups. |
| 1896 | - | After a very bad drought the tribes revolt against the colonists and the rebellion is brutally suppressed |
| 1902 | - | Battle of Tit. The French defeat the Ahaggar Touaregs but fail to control them afterwards. |
| 1916 -1917 | - | The Sanussi Revolt. Some Touareg tribes (Taytok, Kel Rela vassals, NOT Kel Rela Amenukal Musa who supported the French) rise in revolt against the French colonials. Quickly and brutally suppressed. Charles de Foucauld is murdered by ??? During the French occupation, the Amenukal of the Ahaggar confederation becomes an ally of the colonialists. |
| 1960 | Mali | Mali gains independence from France and sets up a one-party state along Soviet lines |
| 1963 | - | The first Touareg insurrection in Mali against the newly indpendent state is suppressed severely by Modibo Keita and Ben Bella, the Algerian head of state. Over 1000 die but the world, including France, is indifferent |
| 1968 | Mali | Moussa Traore ousts Modibo Keita in a coup |
| 1973 - 1974 | - | Exceptional droughts destroy a large part of the Touareg herds. Thousands of young Touaregs take refuge in southern Lybia. |
| 1970 - 1980 | Mali | Touaregs are treated like second class aliens in their own country. The government in Bamako completely ignores the social and economic needs of the northern desert regions. |
| Oct-80 | Lybia | Colonal Ghadaffi puts out a call on national radio inviting all Touaregs of Mali and Niger to come to Lybia. Mali and Niger immediately suspend diplomatic relations with Lybia. Touaregs now considered to be fundamentalist terrorists in the eyes of the regimes in Bamako and Niamey |
| 1980 - 1985 | Lybia | Touaregs in Lybia request the aid of Ghadaffi in a struggle for autonomy and human rights. FLSC is formed. Touaregs eventually realise that Ghadaffi is playing a political game of regional power in which they are only pawns. |
| 1980s | Niger | Dictatorship of Seyni Kountche is especially brutal towards Touaregs. |
| 1988 | Lybia | MPLA is formed with help from the Ghadaffi regime in Tripoli |
| Jun-90 | Niger | Massacre of Touaregs at Tchin Tabaraden launches latest rebellion. 1000 are murdered by the army in want amounts to an attempt to ethnically cleanse certain areas of the country of their Touareg populations. The interior minister Tanja Mamadou is blamed for many of the atrocities. A group of young Touaregs flee into the mountains of the Air region and form the FLAA |
| Jun-90 | Kidal Region | Young Touaregs, fearing reprisals as in neighbouring Niger, take up arms and launch an attack at Menaka. Many of these young men had recently returned from Ghadaffi's camps fired up with revolutionary ideas and know-how. The army come down hard and more than 600 are killed by August. |
| 1990-1991 | Niamey | A National Conference to discuss the Touareg question is held in the capital. Federalism is refected. No hope for the Touaregs |
| Jan-90 | - | Moussa Traore declares a state of emergency |
| Jan-91 | Tamanrasset | Peace accords between Touareg groups and Mali / Niger is signed, brokered by Algeria |
| Mar-91 | Bamako | A coup deposes Moussa Traore and sweeps Amadou Toumani Toure into power |
| May-91 | Timbuktu Region | Local Touareg notables and imams are executed in public without trial in the town of Lere. The families of the victims are taken as hostages. Malian troops keep watch over watering holes and shoot at anyone approaching them |
| 1991 - 1992 | Gao area | Violent reprisals by Malian army against civilian Touareg population |
| 1992 | Mali | After a national conference with various stakeholders Mali holds democratic elections and Alpha Oumar Konare is installed as President |
| Mar-92 | Niger | State of emergency is declared in the north and the army is given martial powers. |
| Apr-92 | - | The National Reconciliation Pact. Peace treaty signed between Malian govt represented by Amadou Toumani Traore and the MFUA. The accords covered some federation for Mali's northern provinces and integration of MFUA fighters into the official army. Accord not accepted by FPLA and many young independetist touaregs. |
| May-92 | Gossi | 12 Touaregs working for a Norwegian NGO are massacred by the army |
| May-92 | Mauretanian border | Foita. 48 Livestock farmers are killed near a well with their animals. |
| Aug-92 | Paris | Negotiations are held between representatives of the government of Niger and of the Touareg rebellion |
| Aug-92 | Niger | More than 200 Touareg leaders are arrested throughout the country |
| Feb-94 | Ouagadougou | Mediated by France, Algeria and Burkina-Faso, rebel leaders start negotiations with representatives of the Niger government |
| 1994 | - | Open conflict breaks out between ARLA and the MPA |
| Jan-94 | - | CFA devalues. |
| Apr-94 | Menaka Region | Thirty Touaregs massacred. |
| Apr-94 | Bamba | Touaregs massacre between 40 and 100 civilians |
| May-94 | - | The Ganda Koy ('Masters of the Earth') movement representing disaffected Songhai and Bambara peoples start massacring Touaregs in the Niger river region |
| Jun-94 | - | Since April, Amnesty reckon that 600 extrajudiciary executions have taken place |
| Jun-94 | Timbuctou | The city is sacked by the army and up to 400 civilians killed |
| Jun-94 | Ber | A Touareg village is massacred by the army |
| Sep-94 | - | European Parliament passes a resolution condemning the actions of the Malian army against the nomadic populatoins of the north. |
| Sep-94 | Agadez | Unidentified attackers throw hand-grenades into a peaceful crowd at a Touareg festival. 6 die but the local government authorities do nothing to convey the dying and wounded to the nearest military hospital in Arlit |
| Oct-94 | Niafunke | The Swiss consul Jean-Claude Berberat is assasinated with Touareg colleagues by army factions |
| Oct-94 | Asonguo | Armed Touareg rebels attack the city and kill 6 |
| Oct-94 | Gao | In reprisal for the Asonguo attack, Ganda Koy massacre an entire encampment (60-300) of civilian Touaregs |
| Oct-94 | Ouagadougou | A surprise agreement is signed between Touareg rebels and Niger government. |
| Jan-95 | Niger | Democratically elected President Mahamane Ousmane is forced to choose a well known anti Touareg first minister |
| Apr-95 | - | Peace agreement is signed between Niger govt and ORA. Many prisonners are released. However other Touareg groups refuse to sign the accords. |
| Jul-95 | Timbuktu | An international conference for development is held by the Malian government. This has a pacifying effect on the region. |
| Dec-95 | - | Mano Dayak, leader of FLT and CRA dies in helicopter crash with two lieutennants. The Touareg movement loses a charismatic and popular international representative |
| 1995 - 1996 | - | A series of locally mediated agreements begin to bring combattants back from the violence and into reconciliation. 2,700 combattants give up their weapons and many of these find jobs in the army or security forces, or follow courses to diversify into business or agriculture. |
| Mar-96 | Timbuktu | La Flamme de La Paix - 3,000 weapons are burned in a symbolic gesture of peace in the presence of President Alpha Oumar Konare, the President of Ghana Jerry Rawlings, the leader of various Touareg factions, leader of Ganda Koy and a host of international observers. |
| 1997 - 1998 | Mali and Niger | The peace holds but there are violent clashes between small groups of armed Touaregs, mainly relating to local disputes over water and grazing etc. |
| Apr-99 | Niger | The repressive anti-Touareg regime of General Mainassara is overthrown. |
| Jan-00 | Mali | A UN sponsored programme to persuade Touaregs to trade their arms in for camels is pursued during the Festival In the Desert in the Tin Essako prefecture near Kidal |
| 2003 | Mali and Algeria | A fundamentalist militia of the GSPC (successors to the the armed Islamic group, the GIA) under the engmatic 'emir' Aderrazak le Para capture and take hostage up to thirty Germany and Swiss tourists in the remote desert south of Djanet in southern Algeria. Their release is negotiated by Iyad Ag Ghali, the leader of the Touareg rebellion. |
| May-06 | Mali | Four extra battalions of the Malian army are sent up to the Kidal region following increasing tension between the Touareg leadership and the Malian government. |
| May 23rd 2006 | Mali | Hassan Fagaga, a renegade Touareg colonel from the National Guard leads a group of rebels on an attack against the army barracks in Kidal. Meanwhile there another uprising in a barracks in Menaka. These attacks create panic in Kidal, where memories of the last rebellion of 1990 are still vivid and painful. Many civilians flee into the surrounding country during one of hte hottest seasons of the year. |
| Jun-06 | Mali | After several days of tension, with minimal skirmishing between rebels and security forces in Kidal, an armoured division of the Malian army is sent north from Gao and the rebels leave Kidal in order to avoid any kind of confrontation that might endager civilian lives. They move north into the remote Terharhar mountains, and set up a permanent camp, which soon numbers around 3000 rebels. |
| July 4th 2006 | Algeria | The Algerian government sponsors peace talks between the ADC (Alliance Democratique du 23 mai 2006 pour le Changement), the new Touareg rebel party set up after the May attacks, and the Malian government. This results in the Accords d'Alger, which are signed on July 4th. |
| July 2006 | Mali | A 'comité du suivi' (implementation committee) is set up to oversee the enactment of the Accords d'Alger. This committee comprising members of all parties, and Algerian government representatives, meets regularly to resolve issues and find ways forward. |
| Sept 9th 2006 | Mali | In clashes between the ADC and the GSPC (fumandamentalist Islamists), the ADC kill three 'emirs' or fundamentalist leaders, including the successor to the infamous Abderrazak le Para. This action proves once and for all that the Touareg rebellion and the ADC have absolutely no links with Al Qaida of fundamentalist Islamic terrorism, as had been oftened claimed in the international media. |
| Oct. 23 2006 | Mali | A routine patrol of armed Touareg belonging to the ADC is ambushed by a fundamentalist Islamic militia of the GSPC north of Arawan. 7 dead, 3 wounded, 2 taken prisoner. |