SUMMARY

MPGK's targeting of Tuareg civilians was in retaliation to the violence perpetrated against the black farmer population by Tuareg rebels.

The militia MPGK (Mouvement Patriotique Ganda Koy; Patriotic Movement of the Ganda Koy) was created in 1994 in the Gao region in the north of Mali. The black farmer population were victims of plundering, rapes, and killings by Tuareg rebels in the context of the territorial conflict between Tuareg rebels and the Malian government. Finding that the army did not protect them, the self-defense force MPGK launched an appeal for counter insurrection against the Tuaregs.

The propagandist of the group has stated that MPGK operated according to a retaliation principle where, when Tuareg rebels killed persons from the black community, the MPGK in its turn killed as many, or more, Tuaregs. This resulted in MPGK employing one-sided violence against the civilian Tuareg population. The information on the attacks is scarce and there are no evident patterns in the way they were carried out. Often the attacks did seem to be in direct retaliation to attacks on the black population by Tuareg rebels.

MPGK targeted the Tuareg, and occasionally Moorish, the civilian population in the area around the Niger River in the north of Mali.

MPGK first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 1994, when the one-sided violence resulted in over 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached on 27 May that year when the group killed 9 Touareg civilians near Tacharane town.