Strategic Allies: AQIM, the MNLA, and the people of Northern Mali

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O'Luanaigh, Robin
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Curriculum in Peace, War, and Defense

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During the 2012 Malian civil war, one of the main actors was Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Al-Qaeda’s most profitable regional franchise. As a result of the group’s specific interactions with the MNLA, an ethno-separatist militia that instigated the civil war in the first place, and the civilian population of Northern Mali broadly, AQIM was able to entrench itself within and ultimately control much of Northern Mali. This research demonstrates the three key elements of AQIM’s success in Mali. First, the group sought local support by doing two things: allying with the MNLA, which gave AQIM access to the region’s ethnically-Tuareg population and providing assistance to Northern Mali’s civilians broadly in an attempt to win their “hearts and minds.” Second, AQIM was able to eliminate its competition in the area when it ended its alliance with the MNLA, after the group abused local civilians, and expelled the MNLA from Northern Mali. And finally, with the support of new local actors like the Tuareg-Islamist group Ansar Dine, AQIM was able to implement its fundamentalist interpretations of Sharia across the territory it now controlled. Gaining support from the local population, eliminating the competition and ultimately implementing its ideology across Northern Mali are the three elements to AQIM’s success.

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