A first statement has been made this Tuesday, Ansar al-Dine « rejects all forms of extremism and terrorism and is committed to the fight against transnational organized crime.

In 2015, AAD also threatened to attack Mauritania and the Ivory Coast.

At the time Al Mahdi was a member of an al-Qaeda-affiliated group, Ansar Eddine that took over northern Mali in 2012.

The number two of a faction of the Malian rebel group Ansar Dine operating in northern Mali was arrested Thursday, according to military and security sources.

Throughout this period, the city would have been under the control of armed groups, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb ("AQIM") and Ansar Eddine, a mainly Tuareg movement associated with AQIM.

On 25 October, a group of about 10 fighters led by Boubacar Sawadogo – linked to Ansar Eddine Sud – attacked Samoroguan gendarmerie, in the west of the country.

Kufa, now allegedly commanding the katibat [brigade] called Ansar Dine Macina (formerly Front for the Liberation of Macina), still leads violent actions in central Mali.

While Al Mourabitoun and AQIM each have a presence north of Timbuktu, Ansar Eddine is present in the Kidal region and MUJAO in the Gao region.

Moreover, Ansar Eddine sent a delegation to Tinzaoutine to demand that the last military units of the MNLA either integrate into Iyad Ag Ghaly’s movement or give up combat and abandon their armaments.

Thus, the jihadi movements, Ansar Eddine, MUJAO-SPS, and AQIM seem to have collaborated to control the territory of Azawad through different military and political approaches.

After the MNLA refused to ally with Ansar Dine in the spring of 2012, the MUJWA and AQIM attacked the MNLA, headquartered in the Gao governorate.

Mistake though it is, this movement as a whole should not be confused with its islamist faction “Ansar Eddine”, even if the latter has undoubtedly pushed the movement a long way in a radical direction.

Shortly thereafter, tensions emerged among the armed groups in the north and, by 18 November, Ansar Dine and MUJAO had driven MNLA out of the main towns of Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal.

Mainly active in the Ténenkou and Youwarou circles, it has recently recruited locally but also includes combatants who probably joined MOJWA or Ansar Dine during the crisis in 2012.

On September 27 2016, the court convicted Ahmad Al Faqi Al-Mahdi, a senior member of the Ansar Eddine armed group, for the war crime of intentionally directing attacks against religious buildings and historical monuments.