Mali: death of Ibrahim ag Bahanga, the most radical of the Tuareg rebels

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ennahar 27 August, 2011 02:10:00

BAMAKO - The most radical leaders of the Tuareg rebels in Mali, Ibrahim ag Bahanga, who never fully agreed to disarm, died Friday in an accident in north-east of the country where he was buried the same day according to corroborating sources.

•    "Ibrahim ag Bahanga died Friday in an accident in north-eastern Mali. His funeral has already taken place" in the same region, said Baye ag Alhassane, a relative of ag Bahanga.
  
     The nature and circumstances of the accident were not specified.
  
     Several elected of Kidal, a region of northeastern Mali, confirmed the information.
  
     He was recently suspected by many embassies of having recovered arms from Libyan thanks to the rebellion launched in the country six months ago against the regime of Muammar Gaddafi.
  
     According to observers, Ibrahim ag Bahanga never fully joined the process born of the Algiers Accords, signed in 2006 between the government and Tuareg rebels in Mali, for the return of peace in northern Mali, a country that has experienced several Tuareg rebellions.
  
     He was exiled in Libya for almost two years, from February 2009, after refusing to participate in the peace process, before returning to Mali in January.
  
     In 2006, a group of Tuareg, with Ibrahim Ag Bahanga, had taken up arms, ammunition, looted depots of the army in the north, before retiring in hills near the Algerian border.
  
     After Algerian mediation, Tuareg rebels and Malian government signed peace agreements in Algiers. These agreements stipulated in particular that the Malian government accelerated the development of the three northern regions of Mali, while for their part; the former Tuareg rebels abandoned the idea of ​​getting autonomy of their region.
  
     But two years after the signing of these agreements in 2008, Ibrahim Ag Bahanga had rejected them before taking up arms. He then kidnapped tens of soldiers.
  
     Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure had finally ordered the Malian military, backed by an Arab militia, to eliminate the “enfant terrible” of northern Mali.
  
     In early 2009, the Malian army had started in the north-east an operation to "destroy" the group of Ag Bahanga. The Defense Ministry had then announced that all his bases had been taken and that he was "in flight".
  
     Ibrahim Ag Bahanga, abandoned by his troops, had left the last hostages he held in Mali before heading to Libya where he was admitted in February 2009, "provided that he remains quiet."
               
  Ennaharonline/ M. O.

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