What is the fla in Mali?

The FLA, which was created in November 2024, consists mostly of Tuaregs -- a semi-nomadic people of Berber descent who traditionally lived across stretches of the Sahara and Sahel and whose members have for decades sought a separate homeland. The FLA separatists have joined forces at times with the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM). Ukraine and the FLA, formed from several rebel movements seeking to seize territory in Tuareg-majority northeast Mali, have repeatedly denied accusations of receiving weapons from Ukraine. However, he said, some elements of the FLA received specialised training in Ukraine on the use of FPV (first-person view) drones. The FLA, a pro-independence armed coalition of predominantly Tuareg groups fighting over the Azawad territory in the country’s north. Using FPV drones “allows FLA to avoid direct confrontation” against the better-equipped Malian army and Africa Corps, said Rida Lyammouri, senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South (PCNS). The FLA said it shot down a Malian helicopter in the north using a drone, a claim the Malian army denied, instead saying it “intercepted and recovered” a “terrorist drone”. “Perhaps what binds us most to Ukraine is that, like us, it is suffering Russian barbarism and imperialism,” Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, spokesman for the rebels, told AFP. In July 2024, a Ukrainian military intelligence official, Andriy Yusov, implied that Kyiv had provided information to the rebels so they could carry out an attack. The FLA separatists have joined forces at times with the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM).

The Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) was founded on November 30, 2024 in Tinzaouatène. The creation of the movement was the result of several years of conflict between rebel groups and Mali's central government over Azawad, the region in northern Mali that covers Gao, Kidal, Ménaka, Gossi and Timbuktu. The Strategic Framework for the Defense of the People of Azawad (Cadre stratégique permanent pour la défense du peuple de l'Azawad in French - CSP-DPA), created on May 2, 2024, was dissolved to form the Azawad Liberation Front (Front de libération de l'Azawad - FLA). The members of the Azawad Liberation Front take up the demands of the CSP-DPA: total independence and autonomy for Azawad, the northern region of Mali, which covers Saharan and Sahelian regions over an area of some 822,000 km². They are seeking the creation of an independent state. FLA considered a terrorist movement by the Malian authorities The government's announcement of the end of the Algiers Agreements was a break with the Tuareg rebels and their rejection of the independence of Azawad, with the government claiming the whole of Mali's current territory and the country's national sovereignty.