SUMMARY
The conflict between CMA(formerly MNLA, Mouvement national de libération de l'Azawad: National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad) on the one hand, and MUJAO and the Signed-in-Blood Battalion (still under the name ‘Battalion of the Veiled’ at the time) on the other were played out in the context of the overall struggle between Islamists and secular separatists in northern Mali during 2012. The mainly Tuareg rebel group MNLA had launched an armed conflict in January 2012, with the stated aim of creating the independent state of Azawad in the northern part of the country. Initially, in a tactical alliance with fellow Tuareg rebel group Ansar Dine, they were able to make large territorial gains, seizing nearly a third of the country's territory by mid-March and the main northern towns by the end of the month. On 6 April, MNLA subsequently declared the formation of the independent state of Azawad, comprising the three northern regions Gao, Kidal, and Timbuktu.
However, at this point the tactical alliance between MNLA and Ansar Dine had started to crumble. The latter had a completely different aim with its armed struggle, favoring the implementation of sharia in the whole country to the creation of an independent Azawad. As the rebels pressed south, they had entered territory where people were more favorable to the message of Ansar Dine than to MNLAs separatist agenda, which was viewed as a strictly Tuareg enterprise among the ethnically mixed population. Furthermore, the presence of two other Islamists groups in the area, AQIM (at this point also containing what would later be Signed-in-Blood Battalion) and MUJAO, started to shift the balance of power in favor of Ansar Dine. During April and May it became clear that the Islamists had created a joint alliance against MNLA, and the latter was pushed out of most main towns. Besides some failed attempts at rapprochement between MNLA and Ansar Dine, the rest of the year saw largely consistent alliances, with the Islamists on the one side and the separatist and secular MNLA on the other. The former remained in control of the northern part of Mali, while MNLA attempted to re-group in the countryside. Armed clashes between the two camps occurred on numerous occasions, with different constellations on the Islamist side (see also AQIM, Jamaatu Ahlis Sunna Liddaawati wal-Jihad, MUJAO - CMA.
Focusing more narrowly on the conflict between MNLA and MUJAO, Signed-in-Blood Battalion, it was clear that the core conflict issue also here was deep ideological differences. The leadership council of MUJAO stated that they were at “war” against the MNLA mainly because the latter refused to adopt Shari’a, but also due to their racial attitudes. In a statement they claimed that among the separatist, “the Black has no rights, while the White has rights” (with ‘white’ referring to Tuareg, Arabs, and Mauritanians). MNLA for its part referred to the MUJAO and Mokhtar Belmokhtar’s Signed-in-Blood Battalion alliance as foreign terrorists.
Fighting in the particular constellation MNLA – MUJAO, Signed-in-Blood Battalion was brief and concerned control of territory. Having re-grouped in rural areas, MNLA failed to re-take Gao and surrounding areas in its counter-offensive, also losing control of its main base in Menaka in the same region (for more information, see ‘Read More’).
The non-state conflict between CMA (formerly MNLA) on the one hand, and MUJAO, Signed-in-Blood Battalion on the other is first included in UCDP data in 2012. Sometime between 16 and 19 November that year clashes in the Gao region resulted in more than 25 battle-related deaths.
