AP Photo

On March 27, 2012, the Touareg separatist organization MNLA (Mouvement National pour la Libération de l'Azaouad) signed an agreement with the al-Qa‘ida affiliated militant organization Ançar Dine to administer the territory under their joint control as an Islamist state. In mid-January 2012, the nationalist MNLA began a military campaign to create an independent Touareg state called Azawad from the three northern Touareg regions of Mali – Kidal, Gao, and Timbuktu, a vast desert and semi-desert area constituting approximately 66% of Malian territory. The newly proclaimed Islamic Republic of Azawad presents al-Qa’ida with increased potential for linking North Africa’s Al-Qa’ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) with the...