- Vigil category device · not official insignia
Identity provenance
Vigil category device — drawn from this record’s own domain, echelon and role. Not an official insignia.
In brief
A navigation grouping, not a command: the separatist and allied movements of northern Mali, from the 2012 rebellion through the CMA and CSP coalitions to the unified FLA of 2024 — one lineage with several coalition names, plus the Ménaka movement that took a different path. Lineage relationships are stated on each record.
- Scope
- Structure, role, lineage and links. 4 subordinate records published.
- Subordination
- Subordination confirmed
- Sources
- 3 on the record
- Record state
- Partial
- Broad area of activity
- Kidal region and the far north above all; Gao, Timbuktu and Ménaka regions for the component movements; the Mali–Algeria border zone as sanctuary.
- Notable history
- The lineage begins with the MNLA, founded in late 2011, which launched the January 2012 rebellion and declared Azawad's independence in April before losing the north to its jihadist co-belligerents. After the French intervention the movements regrouped — the MNLA, the HCUA formed in 2013 from Ifoghas figures repositioning out of Ansar Dine, and an Arab movement — as the CMA, which signed the 2015 Algiers Agreement and governed Kidal de facto for nearly a decade. As implementation stalled the CMA and parts of the pro-government Platform formed the CSP in 2021; when the war with Bamako resumed in 2023 the CSP lost Kidal in November and won at Tinzaouatène in July 2024, and Mali terminated the agreement in January 2024. On 30 November 2024 the components dissolved themselves into a single Azawad Liberation Front under Alghabass Ag Intalla, which retook Kidal in April 2026 in what was reported as its first open coordination with JNIM. The MSA, split from the MNLA in 2016 around Ménaka, followed a separate path of cooperation with the state against Islamic State Sahel.
- Strengths
- Continuity of leadership, community base and cause across fourteen years and four organisational names; the grouping lets a reader follow that continuity without mistaking each coalition for a new actor.
- Limitations
- No shared command at any point: the coalitions coordinated movements that kept their own commanders and constituencies, and their rivalries are part of the record. The grouping is a reading aid — the FLA record carries the present, and the umbrella asserts nothing about current strength, positions or the durability of the FLA–JNIM alignment.
Subordinate formations
Azawad Liberation Front (FLA)Armed movementCSP — Permanent Strategic FrameworkGrouping · not a commandCMA — Coordination of Azawad MovementsGrouping · not a commandMSA — Movement for the Salvation of AzawadArmed movement
Rows are layout only — position and order carry no hierarchy, importance, sequence or strength. Every record shown is an immediate subordinate of the selected organisation.
Sensitivity: Public · structural Confidence: Moderate Sources: Al Jazeera English↗ · Established historical record · Established international media reporting Methodology Corrections
Assessed as of — 2026-07 Last reviewed — 2026-09-28
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