Coup Successful in Mali: Timbuktu falls! Al Qaeda takes over

[Empire of Victory]

Read the bold... hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
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TRIPOLI — Seven people were killed and more than 20 wounded as gunmen raided the oasis town of Ghadames on the border with Algeria on Wednesday, Libya's government spokesman said.

"There were clashes in the city of Ghadames," Nasser al-Manaa said.

"The number of people killed is seven," Manaa said, adding that more than 20 people were wounded in clashes that erupted in the early morning and centred on the airport.

Six of the raiders were killed along with a resident of Ghadames, which lies 600 kilometres (373 miles) southwest of Tripoli.

That toll was confirmed by a local medical official.

Manaa, who did not identify the assailants, said military forces had entered the city and brought the situation under control. The health ministry, for its part, was providing emergency assistance.

Ghadames officials said the attackers belonged to the Tuareg community.

Saraj al-Din Bubaker, head of the local council, told AFP that "a Tuareg group shelled the city with rocket-propelled grenades, forcing some families to flee."

The Tuareg are dark-skinned Libyans violently displaced from several towns, including Ghadames, after the fall of strongman Moamer Kadhafi in an uprising last year with whose forces they were accused of having sided.

Racism coupled with the belief that Kadhafi recruited sub-Saharan mercenaries have made them a focal point of revenge attacks, rights group say.

Another local official said tensions have been high after Tuareg tribesmen were expelled by other residents of Ghadames.

The official said residents "set fire to two houses and four vehicles" in a predominantly Tuareg neighbourhood following the day's unrest.

Ghadames, which is also known as the "Pearl of the Desert," is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to Roman ruins close to Libya's borders with Algeria and Tunisia.

The Tuareg have historically roamed over vast tracts of the southern Sahara and control smuggling routes criss-crossing the Sahel region.

A senior military official excluded the possibility of foreigners entering the country and stirring up the unrest.

"We are not aware of the entry of any external party," army spokesman Ali al-Sheikhi told AFP, pointing to regular air patrols over the area.

He added that a reconciliation committee had begun to reach out to the communities concerned in the hope of calming the situation.

The desert cities of southern Libya have been particularly vulnerable to tribal conflicts in recent months.

Ethnic tensions play into turf wars to control lucrative smuggling routes that cut across porous borders.

The latest violence comes as the country prepares to hold elections for a constituent assembly

[Empire of Victory]

I thought they were Pale??

This is what happens when idiots with an agenda try to influence the politics in region by "racializing" ethnic groups as part of an agenda!!!

[Mid 20s]

I thought they were Pale??

This is what happens when idiots with an agenda try to influence the politics in region by "racializing" ethnic groups as part of an agenda!!!

they are pale or light-skin as compared to a majority of Malians..but when Tuaregs are compared to Libyans they are considered dark-skinned Libyans

[Mid 20s]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOWRpQgmmeM
this tuareg spokesman threatened ecowas spokesperson

[Empire of Victory]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOWRpQgmmeM
this tuareg spokesman threatened ecowas spokesperson

That was early April.

Today AS$$$$S-A-WAD is largely dead cause in my view. No one is advocating for it nor will recognize it. It is a tribal/ethnic land grab in a diverse area!

What is funny is that In that video though he clearly said Al Qaeda is a wing of the MNLA!

Talk about picking a dumb person to be your spokes person!!

BTW, there were no "threats" in that video that I heard
This video came out before everyone learned the dirty motives some had within the movement. Motives which would destroy the region
It was also before people read up on the historical motives for the separation, a colonially rooted, French sponsored, division which some want to hold on to

What the country ultimately needs is unification. Even if a state formed in ASS-A-WAD any democracy there would have them as a minority again then, what??



The region is now in even worse shape and some are going back to Libya which has also collapsed now


If you listen carefully the real issue is economics and separation would not improve that but, make the situation even worse!!

[Empire of Victory]

Tuareg is a diverse group from what I've seen but, that should NOT be and IS NOT the issue.

The real issue is there should be no Separation based on Ethnicity!!!

They should be treated like every other Ethnic group in West Africa.


Why would anyone throw a rebellion at this time??

I can sympathize with some of the complaints but, ultimately what it comes down to is the region does not understand not should it understand such dirty ethnocentric politics.

When you look at the demographics of AS$$$$S-A-WAD it makes this so called separation a joke.

My simple answer to all these problems is, more unity and more development!!


Tuaregs: As you can see it is a diverse ethnic group.

What I think is happening is when one meets one group of Tuaregs and their are light he calls them pale. When they meet the dark ones calls them dark!

Ultimately, the real issues are economics and the type of stuff people are discussing is shameful.




There is a lot of diversity within the Ethnic group.
















[img] will be no Single Ethnic/Tribal states formed in West Africa or, in the larger Western/Northern Africa region because, it would ruin the region and create the situation which made colonization very Easy, Numerous divided tribes/Ethnic groups who on their own could not defeat the colonial machine but, if united may have been able to do something(This was certainly the case in Ghana where if even all the Akans had united the country would not have been colonized or would have been much harder to do so- this is proven by the successes some groups had despite the division!! Ultimately what brought it down WAS division and if after all this time people have not learned even that then there is a long way to go!!

Overall, Some of the politics people are playing if the Tuareg play it themselves it would destroy the ethnic group!!!

It's 2012 and people need to WAKE UP!

[Empire of Victory]

There is already signs of Armed Ethnic hegemony by the DONKEY MNLA!!!



As negotiations drag on between the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) and Ansar al-Din, new resistance to the continued presence of armed Islamic groups is emerging.

Just a few hours after the end of a May 13th meeting in which the two sides agreed to disarm militias and declare an interim government, formerMalian army Colonel El-Hadj Ag Gamou announced the birth of a movement with 1,000 men supplied with 250 military vehicles.

The goals of the new Republican Movement for the Reconstruction of Azawad (MRRA) are to combat Islamic armed groups in northern Mali and to demand political autonomy for Azawad, group spokesperson Ishaq Ag Housseyni said.

He added that his movement includes "various social components of Azawad, such as Songhai and Fula nationalities, Arabs and Touaregs who seek broad autonomy for Azawad within the framework of the Malian republic", temoust.org cited him as saying.

The MRRA spokesperson demanded the fighters of the MNLA and the National Front for the Liberation of Azawad who want autonomy join them so that they can expel the armed groups from northern Mali provinces.

Ag Housseyni made a similar appeal to the international community to provide necessary means to fight these armed groups and to establish stability and security for the region's civilians, noting that any delay would consolidate the presence of terrorists in the north.

Gao-based journalist Mohamed Ag Ahmedu explained that the "sudden appearance of Colonel El-Hadj Ag Gamou who fled in early April with his pro-Malian army military forces under strikes by Ansar al-Din and the MNLA will change the balance of power and delay the endeavours of the MNLA which is doing its best to ensure full independence from Mali".

"The talk about the option to stay under the Malian government from a Touareg leader who has his own political weight and military force in the region, and his talk about ethnic diversity in Azawad where many groups of black people are living, has strongly encouraged demonstrations led by young people from the Songhai ethnicity in Gao against the armed groups, including the MNLA, which considers itself to be wanted by local populations," Ag Ahmedu added.

The demonstrations that were staged Monday evening by Songhai young people, the predominate ethnic group in Gao, coincided with the appearance of the MRRA. Demonstrators called for the departure of armed groups, such as Ansar al-Din, al-Qaeda and the MNLA. They also removed the flags of these movements and replaced them with the Malian flag. As a result, the demonstration was dispersed by force and at least five people were wounded, AFP reported citing a medical source in Gao.

Moussa Seidu, a Gao resident, told Magharebia that "demonstrators chanted slogans condemning Islamic groups that prevented them from playing football, and vowed to expel them from town."

"The anger of demonstrators was so strong that they challenged the fears that have been haunting them since the Islamic groups came," Seidu added. "They were saying that they no longer fear death or humiliation."

Gunshots over their heads by MNLA and Ansar al-Din dispersed the protestors. However, MNLA representatives downplayed the importance of the rally.

"We don't consider what happened Monday evening to be a demonstration; rather, they were just moves by a certain group that was mobilised and exploited by entities known to us," Mubarak Ag Mohamed, a member of the MNLA media office, told Magharebia. "Their goal is to stop the independence of Azawad and impede our march towards reconciliation."

"The march of those young people was dispersed by force by MNLA and Ansar al-Din," Ag Mohamed concluded. "The situation is very calm today, and life has returned to normal."

[Empire of Victory]

Exactly what I've been saying about the MNLA this state should never be allowed to be formed. EVER!

El-Hadj Ag Gamou on the other hand is smart and is someone ECOWAS can speak with.

The MNLA (Morons, Nincompoops, Losers & A$$sholes)are not worth negotiating with and neither is the filthy al Qaeda wing of it!!

[Empire of Victory]

BAMAKO — Leaders of a coup in Mali said they respect a decision by the West African bloc ECOWAS that interim president Dioncounda Traore must head the transition until general elections.

"Dioncounda Traore will remain in power to lead the transition" and "talks will continue about (the implementation of) accompanying measures", a military official at the putschists' headquarters at Kati outside Bamako told AFP on Saturday.

ECOWAS earlier accused the leaders of the March 22 coup of blocking its efforts to steer the country back to constitutional rule.

"An agreement in principle has been reached" with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), coup leader Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo said on state ORTM television after meeting West African ministers on a mediation mission in Bamako.

The talks "will be continued in the coming hours", he added.

Burkina Faso's Foreign Minister Djibrill Bassole, one of three ECOWAS mediators sent to Mali Saturday, confirmed that the putschists pledge to abide by the agreement.

"Captain Sanogo and the members of the (former junta) agree to the provisions that the ECOWAS heads of state have taken to accompany the transition process," he said.

Bassole said the talks had "gone well.

"We will continue to talk to each other but I can already say that there is a convergence of opinions."

"A certain number of accompanying measures has to be elaborated and we will stay in Bamako the time it needs" to do that, he added.

Bassole was accompanied by colleagues from Ivory Coast and Nigeria.

ECOWAS foreign ministers met in Abidjan Saturday, a day after United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said it was "critical" that they "send a clear and principled message against unconstitutional seizures of power".

The regional bloc successfully mediated a transition agreement and convinced the junta to hand power to Traore on April 12.

But the mid-level army officers who overthrew then president Amadou Toumani Toure's government are refusing to let Traore stay in office beyond Tuesday -- the 40 days set down in the constitution as the maximum length of an interim government.

The ECOWAS deal envisioned a 12-month transition that would lead to new elections.

The regional bloc had sharp words for the coup leaders Friday after the latest round of talks failed to resolve the impasse.

"The junta itself created (this) blockage," Ivory Coast Foreign Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan, whose country holds the rotating ECOWAS presidency, told a regional ministerial meeting.

On Friday, Mali's parliament unanimously passed a bill granting amnesty to the coup leaders.

The bill, which must be signed by the president before becoming law, was part of the ECOWAS-mediated transition deal.

While the junta justified the coup saying the government was not doing enough to fight a rebellion by ethnic Tuareg rebels in the north, the power vacuum in Bamako has enabled Islamist and Tuareg fighters to seize most of the vast desert north, effectively splitting the country in two.

[Palacas]

Ecowas has completely failed, gave captain clown all the benefits of a former head of state and now goons are in the streets and have attacked the interim president

Interim president of Mali injured, witness

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — A witness says that the interim president of Mali has been taken unconscious with a head wound to a hospital amid a day of protests.

An Associated Press reporter saw protesters break into the palace compound Monday but it is not clear whether interim President Dioncounda Traore was there, or how he was injured.

Sekou Yattara, a medical student at Point G Hospital, said Traore has a head wound and was unconscious when he was brought in.

Thousands of supporters of junta leader Capt. Amadou Sanogo protested at the presidential palace in Bamako, angry about a deal that extends Traore's stay in power.

http://news.yahoo.com/interim-president ... 35400.html

[Empire of Victory]

Barbaric f000ls

[Empire of Victory]

Dioncounda Traore: Mali PM 'ashamed' at leader's beating
Picture showing broken down gate after thousands of Malians protested on May 21, 2012 in Bamako Thousands of protesters entered the presidential compound on Monday


Mali's Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra has said he is ashamed that Mali's interim president was beaten unconscious by protesters on Monday.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18156476

[paabo]

Dioncounda Traore: Mali PM 'ashamed' at leader's beating
Picture showing broken down gate after thousands of Malians protested on May 21, 2012 in Bamako Thousands of protesters entered the presidential compound on Monday


Mali's Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra has said he is ashamed that Mali's interim president was beaten unconscious by protesters on Monday.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18156476

What a damn bloody shame!!

[Empire of Victory]

Dioncounda Traore: Mali PM 'ashamed' at leader's beating
Picture showing broken down gate after thousands of Malians protested on May 21, 2012 in Bamako Thousands of protesters entered the presidential compound on Monday


Mali's Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra has said he is ashamed that Mali's interim president was beaten unconscious by protesters on Monday.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18156476

What a damn bloody shame!!

Barbarians!!!

[Empire of Victory]

The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) and Islamist Touareg rebels Ansar al-Din reportedly reached a deal Sunday (May 20th) to form a joint interim government for the self-proclaimed state of Azawad.

“Ansar al-Din and the MNLA have agreed to choose Belal Ag Sharif, head of the MNLA political bureau, to lead the interim government, and Mohamed Ag Nejim, a former officer in Mali’s army, has been selected as general co-ordinator of army,” Nina Welet Ntalo, a member of the MNLA political bureau told Magharebia.

She added that “the two groups have formed a 40-member committee, with half of members representing Ansar al-Din and the other half representing MNLA, to declare the government Sunday or Monday (May 20th-21st).”

The agreement removes an important obstacle for the secessionists seeking an independent state in northern Mali but leaves open the question of the continued presence of fighters from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and other terrorist groups.

Abu Bakr al-Ansari, an analyst hailing from the Touareg tribe of Kalnassar who specialises in the on-going conflict in northern Mali, said the agreement came at a time of a “decline of the secular MNLA’s authority; something that undermined its argument about its ability to convince the world to support its secular state”.

“Given this situation, we can understand the tireless efforts that MNLA leaders have been making for weeks to convince Ansar al-Din leader Iyad Ag Ghaly to join them and abandon his alliance with al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb,” al-Ansari added. “However, this hasn’t been possible so far, although progress has been made in negotiations.”

A key part of the agreement was the inclusion of multiple ethnic groups from across northern Mali, according to Gao-based journalist Mohamed Ag Ahmedu.

In addition to the MNLA and Ansar al-Din, Ag Ahmedu said the pact included “the Arab Front for the Defence of Identity and groups close to the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), AQIM and leaders of Arab tribes, such as Barabiche, Kentah and Amhar and other tribes in northern Mali, to establish the Republic of Azawad which would consist of Touaregs and Arabs and some other ethnic minorities that have shared land, religion, history and aspirations”.

He added that “there are some other issues that are still under discussion between Ansar al-Din and MNLA, such as abandoning the alliance with AQIM elements, who Iyad Ag Ghaly considers as immigrants who can never be abandoned.”

Meanwhile, a senior military commander from the MNLA who requested not to be identified told Magharebia that his group “agreed with Iyad Ag Ghaly Sunday evening on the principle of Azawad state independence”.

“As to work under Islamic Sharia, we agreed that the choice will be for the Azawad people through a popular referendum about accepting the Islamic Sharia or secular system,” the MNLA commander said. “We also agreed that he would remove the black flag and that he would install MNLA flags instead.”

“The other issue that is still outstanding is the position from AQIM,” he added. “Iyad Ag Ghaly didn’t agree to abandon them and their alliance, and he still considers them to be friends who rendered him military services during his war against the Malian army.”

In his turn, Adoum Ag El-Wali, an activist in the MNLA and a Gao resident, told Magharebia that “a committee consisting of Azawad clerics is still talking to Iyad Ag Ghaly to religiously convince him of abandoning his alliance with AQIM elements. We’re optimistic about the results of these negotiations in the next few days.”

Meanwhile, analyst al-Mokhtar al-Salem said that the decision by Arab populations to join forces with Azawad rebels was an important step that could “help partially isolate and neutralise AQIM”.

[Empire of Victory]

So the Arabs tribes have joined the Tuareg(I think this is a plan to get rid of Al Qaeda which is a GOOD thing).... My only problem is, Why are they calling the other tribes "Minorities" in the article. They are the overwhelming majority. Do they think the other tribes would want to be ruled by a minority??






If these are the criminals no wonder they are so dumb!

They look young as hell!! None look older than 25!



No wonder they are so dumb!!


If Captain donkey had not been so greedy the problem would have been solved by now(through some nonviolent solution) since the region has much more important things to deal with and this A$$$-a-wad tribal project which has about as much a chance of being recognized as I have of learning to fly would be dead by now.

I would really hate for the region to have to negotiate with teenagers though... but, only a bunch of teenagers or really dumb adults would think such a useless project was possible.



http://magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1 ... feature-01


The good news is they may be getting al Qaeda out of the region if they can do that they would have managed to do what ATT's weak gov was never able to do and I will respect their negotiating abilities BUT, never advocate for any recognition!!

[Empire of Victory]

As I suspected earlier on ALGERIA may be in on all of this!!

After all many of those Army tanks were Algerian tanks and it would seem that they are hoping to COLONIZE Northern Mali!!
Time for the French to recolonize Algeria!!

What the hell does

"sphere of influence" mean?? Did they like the French "sphere of influence" in their country! Baboons!!! DONKEYS!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18104236


Algeria needs to come clean on its involvement with terrorist groups and destabilizing neighboring states or, I will be forced to support and cheer on the Arab spring(donkeys spring) and the Saudi/Qatari Mafia as they destabilize the country(Some thing they are very close to)!!

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/peo ... 32336.html


The propaganda is already starting! And yes the Algeria security forces are capable of orchestrating this whole fake revolution . To carve a region out of West Africa!! It would explain why they have been saying some of the things they've been saying.... I always suspected them but, did not want to because I knew their history and thought they could not be that stupid! I may have been wrong.

[Empire of Victory]

Of course this could all be propaganda to start a war between West Africa and Algeria so that the country will be destabilized by the criminals who destroyed Libya will have access to the jackpot of oil that Algeria is!!

BBC is not exactly credible news but, British propaganda which is ultimately part of NATO propaganda and firmly the people who destroyed Libya,.

[Empire of Victory]

Bamako - Mali's interim leader Dioncounda Traore left on Wednesday for France to undergo medical tests after an assault by protesters angry at his appointment to head a post-coup transition government.

“He is going to Paris for more thorough medical tests after being assaulted,” a presidential official said on condition of anonymity.

However government spokesman Hamadoun Toure, who is also communications minister, said Traore's medical appointment had been “made for a long time”.

“He will come back as soon as his doctor sees fit,” he added.

Traore aide Boubacar Diarra said there would be “no power vacuum” as his “check-up was scheduled”.

The 70-year-old slowly climbed the stairs to the aircraft before his departure, AFP witnessed, two days after angry protesters evaded security and burst into his office, beating him badly enough to require a visit to hospital for a head wound.

Monday's protest was organised by the Committee of Malian Patriotic Organisations (COPAM), the pro-putsch coalition that held a two-day meeting ending with a resolution late on Tuesday night that coup leader Captain Amadou Sanogo would head the interim government.

Defying the Economic Community of West African States-mediated deal, the coalition sparked fresh political upset with its decision “to institute Captain Amadou Sanogo as president of the transition” on Thursday.

Traore's party brushed off the statement as “simply a joke”.

“The ridiculous isn't fatal. The organisers of this meeting are making a last-ditch stand, but it is irresponsible in the current situation,” said Abdoulaye Kante of the Malian Democratic Alliance (ADEMA).

“There is a transition president, it is Dioncounda Traore.”

Sanogo has not publicly reacted to the pro-putschists' decision to name him transition president.

Monday's attack drew widespread condemnation and concern for a fragile transition process after a March coup. Stability is urgently needed in Bamako to deal with Islamist and Tuareg rebels controlling the country's north.

The attack came just hours after regional mediators left the country pleased at having convinced coup leaders to accept a Traore-led 12-month transition back to democratic rule after weeks of political deadlock.

Sanogo had wanted Traore to step down after a constitutionally-mandated 40-day interim presidency, and many felt he was jockeying to lead the transition himself.

However on Sunday he accepted a sweetened deal as he was offered all the benefits a former president would get, including housing, transport, security and an allowance.

But an angry crowd, which was in favour of the ouster of President Amadou Toumani Toure and does not want Traore leading the transition, besieged his offices despite the presence of hundreds of security guards.

Sanogo and a group of low-ranking officers ousted the government on March 22, saying it was incompetent in handling a rebellion by armed Tuaregs in the north which broke out in January.

However the coup only opened the way for the Tuaregs, armed Islamist group Ansar Dine, backed by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and criminal groups to occupy the vast north of the country, an area larger than France.

In the fabled city of Timbuktu, witnesses reported that Ansar Dine and AQIM had on Wednesday destroyed a monument dedicated to those who died in the struggle against dictator Moussa Traore in 1991.

They also whipped youths who were seen smoking as they strengthen their hold in the region where they have implemented strict Islamic law.

“They first tried to break the monument with tools, but it didn't work,” said a teacher in Timbuktu via telephone. “Then they attached a rope to the monument, tying it to a vehicle and driving off, causing it to fall.”

The Islamists have already destroyed the El Farouk monument, a horse and symbol of the ancient city seized with the region's other main towns Gao and Kidal in the days following the March coup in Bamako.

They also desecrated a holy tomb at a UNESCO World Heritage site, raising concern for the rich cultural history of Timbuktu. - Sapa-AFP

[Empire of Victory]

More thoughts on Algeria and even Mauritania being behind this. I've been doing some digging!!!

Their interest would be to have an Al Qaeda presence in the region to( in Algeria's case_):

1) Justify the large military budget and belly rubbing from western governments in their fight against Al Qaeda.
2) Scare the population into thinking keep us in power or AL QAEDA
will take over...
3) The Al Qaeda in Mali could very well be a creating of the Algerian government to entrench itself in power. If Algeria really has the military it claims it has it could have destroyed Al Qaeda a long time ago.


In Mauritania's case:


1) To justify the huge military aid and subsequently, entrench the current gov. in power.



This whole A$$SS-A-WAD could be a project from these 2 countries to keep the ruling regimes in power ad infinitum!




That's what I call analysis!!