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Morocco-based Amazigh group urges African Union action on Azawad violence

The Amazigh World Assembly is again calling attention to the conflict between Tuareg and the Malian army. They criticize the role of both Bamako and Algiers in the ongoing violence in Azawad.

Rachid Raha, head of the Amazigh World Assembly. / Ph. DR
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The Amazigh World Assembly (AMA) has written to the current Chairman of the African Union, Mauritanian Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, about «the ongoing genocide against the Tuareg and Moorish populations of Azawad».

In his letter, AMA President Rachid Raha of Morocco condemns «ethnic cleansing operations against the civilian populations of Azawad», allegedly committed by «Malian military forces with the support of Russian mercenary militias from the 'Wagner' group». Raha deplored the AU's lack of reaction to what he described as «genocide».

«This deafening silence makes our African states notorious accomplices in this atrocious ethnic cleansing».

Rachid Raha

«In our letter to the Chairman of the African Union, we also pointed out the destabilizing role played by Algeria in the region, in particular the collusion between Algerian intelligence services and terrorist groups operating in the Sahel», AMA President told Yabiladi.

For negotiations between Touareg and Bamako

«The Algerians fear that the Malian Tuareg will succeed in gaining regional political autonomy and that the Algerian Tuareg will be inspired by this», explains Raha. «Our NGO approached President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani because he is perfectly aware of the problem. His country hosts hundreds of thousands of Tuareg and Moorish refugees who have fled the fighting in Mali», adds Raha.

The NGO asked the Mauritanian president to «convince the military leaders of Mali and the Tuareg and Moorish fighters of Azawad to sit down around a table» with a view to «establishing a federal territorial system (...) the best political option for saving Mali and the Sahel region».

Before writing to Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, the Amazigh World Assembly had contacted Presidents Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin, the head of the internationally-recognized Libyan government, Abdelhamid Dbeibeh, and the foreign ministers of Mali, Egypt, Tunisia, Mauritania, Senegal and Burkina Faso, as well as the European Union and the US ambassador to Morocco.

On December 1, representatives of the Tuareg community in Morocco submitted a letter to the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, requesting mediation by the Kingdom in the war in Mali.

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