TUMULT WITHIN TUAREG REBEL ADC FOLLOWING FAILED

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BAMAKO 000036 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/15/2019 TAGS: PREL PINR PINS ASEC ML SUBJECT: TUMULT WITHIN TUAREG REBEL ADC FOLLOWING FAILED TALKS IN KIDAL REF: A. 08 BAMAKO 00968 ¶B. NOUAKCHOTT 00009 ¶C. BAMAKO 00960 ¶D. BAMAKO 00012 ¶E. 08 BAMAKO 00779 Classified By: Political Officer Aaron Sampson, Embassy Bamako, for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 1.(C) Summary: The capture of eight Tuareg rebels near the town of Tin-Essako on January 12 has revealed new divisions within the Tuareg rebel Alliance for Democracy and Change (ADC). Although press reports portrayed the incident as a planned operation by the Malian military against Bahanga, Tuaregs claim the rebel vehicle and Malian patrol simply ran into each other with the Malian military - for the first time in recent memory - coming out on top. Nor is it clear whether the captured Tuaregs belonged to the ADC, Bahanga's Northern Mali Tuareg Alliance for Change (ATNMC),or some combination of the two. The leader of the captured Tuareg rebel patrol - Ahmed Anakib - reportedly accompanied Bahanga on his return to Mali from Libya via Mauritania in November ¶2008. However, on January 14 a new spokesman for the "armed branch" of the ADC said Anakib belonged to the ADC. The confusion over Anakib's shifting allegiances appears to reflect greater shifts within the ADC itself. In addition to the apparent resignation of previous ADC spokesman and signatory to the Algiers Accords Ahmada ag Bibi, two of the ADC's three seats on the Algiers Accords steering committee have changed hands, with one of these seats going to the notoriously unreliable Hassan Fagaga. Before news of the January 12 incident broke, Minister of Territorial Administration Kafougouna Kone told the Embassy that internal disagreements within the ADC led to the breakdown of talks in Kidal. Minister Kone attributed this to ADC leader Iyad ag Ghali and said the ball was now in the ADC's court. "We're waiting," said Kone, "for them to telephone us." End Summary. -------------- Mali Captures Eight Tuareg Rebels -------------- 2.(U) On January 12 Ibrahim Bahanga released two employees of the Kidal branch of the Malian Electric Company (EDM). Rebels believed to be linked with Bahanga carjacked and captured the two EDM workers on January 7 on the road between Gao and Kidal. The rebels also briefly detained the EDM vehicle's driver, a female passenger, and her ten year old daughter. It was not clear why Bahanga, who normally does not capture civilians, held the two EDM employees for five days. 3.(C) Later in the day on January 12 a Malian army patrol led by Col. Mohamed Abderahmane ould Meydou briefly engaged and captured a Toyota Landcrusier with a mounted gun carrying eight Tuareg rebels near Tin-Essako about 200 KM east of Kidal. According to a statement released by the Malian Ministry of Defense, two Malian soldiers were wounded during the incident. Tuareg contacts have reported that, in addition to the two Malian soldiers wounded, one member of the Malian military was killed. It appears that the individual who was killed, Tanato ag Ekhya, was not a regular soldier but rather a member of the Tuareg Imghad militia constituted by the Malian government and Col. Elhadj Gamou to counter Tuareg rebels. Although Col. Meydou is an ethnic Arab, he appears to be one of the Malian officers working with Col. Gamou's Imghad militia. Two rebels were also wounded. 4.(C) International and Malian media have reported that the January 12 incident stemmed from a planned operation by the Malian army against Tuareg rebels aligned with Bahanga. Tuareg contacts, however, report that Col. Meydou came upon the rebel vehicle by chance. Either way, the contingent of Malian forces clearly won this round and the eight prisoners arrived in Bamako on January 14. French press reported that the Red Cross had demanded access to the prisoners, declaring that the group of eight were captured during combat and are therefore prisoners of war. On January 15 a local representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confirmed to the Embassy that the ICRC had indeed requested access to the prisoners but had encountered certain undefined "difficulties". The prisoners were examined by a Malian military doctor upon arrival in Bamako, but there is as yet no indication that the Malians will allow the ICRC to see them, possibly because Mali regards the prisoners as criminals and bandits rather than POWs. -------------- BAMAKO 00000036 002 OF 003 Who is Ahmed Anakib? -------------- 5.(C) The leader of the captured rebel contingent was Ahmed Anakib. Anakib reportedly traveled with Ibrahim Bahanga by air from Libya to Nouakchott in November 2008. He and Bahanga are believed to have returned to Mali overland, perhaps with help from members of the Mauritanian government (Ref. A and B). Anakib also reportedly participated in the ATNMC's December 20 attack against the Malian base at Nampala on December 24 (Ref. C). 6.(U) It would therefore appear that Anakib and the other captured Tuaregs belonged to the ATNMC and many Malian newspapers have described Anakib as Bahanga's "right hand" man. However, on January 14 Alkhader ag Faki, whom Radio France (RFI) described as the spokesman for the "armed branch" of the ADC, told RFI that Anakib belonged to the ADC. "They are not Ibrahim Bahanga's men," said ag Faki of the eight captured rebels, "they are ADC members who were on a directed mission to pick up soldiers who had reached the end of their vacations in the area of Tin-Essako, and were encircled 40 KM from Tin-Essako by military convoys which opened fire on them." Asked by RFI to clarify whether the captured Tuaregs were with the ADC or Bahanga, ag Faki said: "Even Kidal, the Kidal authorities, know that Ahmed Anakib belonged to the Alliance (ADC) and I don't know why, all of a sudden, everything has changed and now we are talking about Bahanga's men. This is a confusion we need to avoid and we are waiting for clear explanations from Bamako and an update on the health status of these individuals." 7.(C) Since membership in the ATNMC and ADC is not mutually exclusive, Anakib may be one of several Tuaregs playing both sides of the rebel fence. Tuareg contacts appear divided on Anakib's allegiance, with some siding with ag Faki and others citing his trip through Libya and Mauritania as conclusive evidence of his ties to Bahanga. Eventual identification of the seven other prisoners may provide a better indication of what rebel flag Anakib was flying when captured by Col. Meydou. -------------- Turmoil within the ADC -------------- 8.(C) Ag Faki's claim of ownership over Anakib could be a product of confusion, or outright division, within the ADC. It could also stem from the ADC's refusal to acknowledge Bahanga's ATNMC as a legitimate, stand-alone rebel group. This is the first we have heard of Alkhader ag Faki, who is an Iwellemmeden Tuareg from Menaka. During northern Mali's 1991-1996 rebellion ag Faki belonged to the Movement pour l'Azawad (MPA) led by Iyad ag Ghali. It appears that ag Faki was fairly close to ag Ghali during the 1990s, but we have no information on what ag Faki has been up to since the last rebellion ended in 1996. 9.(C) Although RFI introduced ag Faki as the spokesman for the "armed branch" of the ADC, ag Faki seems to have taken over for National Assembly Deputy Ahmada ag Bibi as the ADC's official spokesman. Ag Bibi, who signed the Algiers Accords in 2006 on the ADC's behalf, ascended to the post of spokesperson largely through his prior role as one of ag Ghali's two business partners in a Kidal-based travel agency called Affala voyages. Since winning election to Mali's National Assembly in 2007, ag Bibi has become increasingly detached from ADC decision-making. Several Tuareg sources have told the Embassy that ag Bibi resigned as spokesman out of frustration following Mali, Algeria and ADC leaders' failure to convince the ADC's rank and file to return to their barracks in Kidal, January 5-7 (Ref. D). 10.(C) On January 12 Kidal Chamber of Commerce president Abdousalam ag Assalat told the Embassy that he too had resigned his position as an ADC representative. Since 2006, ag Assalat has held one of the ADC's three seats on the nine-member Algiers Accords steering committee. Ag Assalat, who represented Kidal's Taghat Melet Tuareg community on the steering committee, said he decided to quit in late December, shortly after Iyad ag Ghali returned to Mali. Ag Assalat said he was equally frustrated with both the ADC and Mali and said neither was a good-faith negotiating partner. Prior to the January 5-7 fiasco in Kidal, the ADC gave ag Assalat's seat to another Taghat Melet Tuareg, Sidi Mohamed Ougana. 11.(C) In addition to Ougana, the January 5-7 meeting of the Algiers Accords committee included another familiar but likely not entirely welcome member: Hassan Fagaga. Fagaga BAMAKO 00000036 003 OF 003 reportedly replaced Mohamed ag Aharib on the steering committee. Ag Assalat, ag Aharib, and Haroun ag Saghid were the ADC's three original representatives to the Algiers Accords committee (Ref. E). It is unclear why the ADC replaced ag Aharib. Ag Aharib represented the Ifergoumessen fraction of Kidal Tuaregs, which includes Bahanga, and was known for flip flopping between the ADC and the ATNMC. Fagaga is also an Ifergoumessen with a similar history of moving between the two rebel movements. -------------- Minister Kone Blames Iyad -------------- 12.(C) On January 12 Minister of Territorial Administration, General Kafougouna Kone, told the Embassy that the ADC had agreed to disarm prior to entering Kidal on January 5 and that ADC leaders changed their minds at the last moment. Minister Kone said he did not believe the January 5-7 failure meant the end of the Algiers Accords. He did, however, lay the blame for this failure squarely on ADC leader Iyad ag Ghali, who Kone accused of working to undermine the peace process. "And to think," said Kone of ag Ghali, "that I flew him to Kidal in my own airplane." Minister Kone said National Assembly Deputy Alghabass ag Intallah was still trying to convince the ADC to return to Kidal and that the ADC had promised to call Bamako when the rebel group was ready to meet once again with the Malian government. "We're waiting for them to telephone us," said Kone. -------------- Comment: New Faces, New Uncertainties -------------- 13.(C) Ag Bibi and ag Assalat were both dedicated to a peaceful solution to the Tuareg conflict. As a result, they often found themselves out ahead of the rest of the ADC, advocating for concessions or agreements that the group's gun-toting rank and file were not ready to accept. Their decision to resign their posts within the ADC hierarchy do not bode well for the Algiers Accords or further negotiations with Mali. While we know very little about ag Faki or Sidi Mohamed Ougana, the ADC's decision to appoint the notorious Fagaga as one of its three representatives to the Algiers Accords steering committee was likely not well received by Malian civilian or military leaders who traveled to Kidal for the ADC's supposed return to its barracks on January 5. Seen from this angle, it is somewhat easier to understand how the ADC's return to Kidal, which was supposed to have been a done-deal, ended in complete disarray two days later. LEONARD