Reports from Mali's breakaway northern region of Azawad are as murky and contradictory as ever. Last week we were told that the Tuareg rebels of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) had cut a deal with the largest jihadi faction in the region, Ansar Dine, for creation of an "Islamic state." Now a May 29 AFP report picked up by Nigeria's This Day and South Africa's IOL News quotes a Tuareg rebel leader as saying the deal has collapsed. But the leader is named as speaking not in the name of the MNLA, but a "National Liberation Front of Azawad (FNLA)." To wit:

Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Casablanca, Morocco's largest city, May 27, in a renewed push for democratic reforms. The march, organized by trade unions, was the largest since a new government took office in January, with leaders accusing Prime Minister Benkirane of failing to deliver promised changes amid continued high unemployment. November elections brought to power a coalition government led by the Justice and Development Party, a moderate Islamist party, but protesters charge he has done little to fulfill his promises of social justice. "There are more than 50,000 people who are demonstrating to call on the government to start a genuine dialogue addressing our country's social ills," opposition Socialist MP Hassan Tariq said. (AlJazeera, May 28; BBC News, May 27)

It is bitterly disappointing, but there is a sense of the inevitable to it. When the Tuareg rebels of the MNLA first claimed to have seized northern Mali and declared the independent state of Azawad last month, they trumpeted their commitment to secularism and dismissed the Islamist factions that had evidently taken power in Timbuktu and elsewhere in the territory as insignificant "groupsicles" that they would shortly crush. Now, just a few weeks later, the MNLA announces that it is merging with the most significant of these factions, Ansar Dine. The marriage of convenience is an obvious one. The MNLA, despite its boasting, was not able to crush the Islamists and is adhering to the old adage "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." They have betrayed their supposed commitment to secularism in order to achieve their more fundamental aim of an independent Azawad. Ansar Dine, in turn, have sacrificed their loyalty to a unified Mali (which probably never meant much to them anyway) in order to achieve their more fundamental aim of an Islamic state.

We noted in September, after the fall of Moammar Qaddafi, that hundreds of Tuareg were being forced to flee into Algeria by Arab militias in the western Libyan town of Ghadames. This exodus apparently continues. More than 55 Tuareg crossed over into Algerian territory in the last two days for fear of reprisals by armed groups, according to Algeria's El-Khabar newspaper May 24. The Ghadames tribe, which is backed by forces affiliated with the National Transitional Council, is said to carrying out attacks on local Tuareg families and businesses, putting stores and stables to the torch. According to the refugees, many Tuareg were subjected to "illegal" detention at secret locations under inhumane conditions. They added that members of the Ghadames tribes are searching for Tuareg members everywhere, even in hospitals, to abduct, abuse or kill them. A large number have been illegally arrested, including women. (Al-Monitor, May 24)

Former Libyan chief of intelligence Abdullah al-Senussi will face charges of illegally entering the country of Mauritania, an anonymous source told Reuters on May 21. Al-Senussi, who served under Moammar Qaddafi, was arrested in Mauritania in March. A trial in the country will delay other international efforts to prosecute al Senussi. Libya's National Transitional Council, the International Criminal Court (ICC) and France have all requested custody of al-Senussi. The ICC issued arrest warrants for al-Senussi in June on charges of murder and persecution for planning attacks on civilians during the Libya conflict, but he is also suspected of organizing mass rapes. France requested custody because al-Senussi was sentenced to life in prison in France for his role in a 1989 plane bombing over Niger that killed 170 people, including 54 French citizens. Both members of Qadaffi's "inner circle," al-Senussi and Qadaffi's son Saif al-Islam, have now been arrested.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by fighting in northern Mali and dozens have been subjected to arbitrary detention, extra-judicial executions or sexual violence including rape, Amnesty International said May 16. In a report "Mali: Five months of crisis, armed rebellion and military coup," Amnesty International catalogues a litany of human rights violations committed against the backdrop of a food shortage affecting 15 million people in the Sahel region. "After two decades of relative stability and peace, Mali is now facing its worst crisis since independence in 1960," said Gaetan Mootoo, Amnesty's West Africa researcher who just returned from a three week research mission to the country. "The entire north of the country has been taken over by armed groups who are running riot. Ten of thousands of people have fled the region, creating a humanitarian crisis in Mali and in neighbouring countries."

A militant of the Islamist group Ansar Dine attacked the Timbuktu tomb of 16th-century saint Sidi Mahmoud Ben Amar—a popular pilgrimage point classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site—a spokesman for the faction told the AP May 6. A group of Muslims who showed up at the site for Friday worship two days before were stopped and threatened by Ansar Dine armed militants, who told them that honoring the saint is "haram" (forbidden). The militants then began to sack the holy site. A Malian parliament member for Timbuktu, El Hadj Baba Haidara, told Reuters: "They attacked the grave, broke doors, windows and wooden gates that protect it. They brought it outside and burn it." He warned of armed resistance to the Islamist occupation in Timbuktu if such attacks continue: "There is a risk the people may revolt because this is something that affects their dignity. This tomb is sacred, it is too difficult to bear." (AP, AlJazeera, BBC News, May 6; Reuters, May 5)

Sahelian governments and local and international aid groups are struggling to cope with both the continual arrivals of people fleeing the regions of Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal in northern Mali, and the mounting number of hungry people across the region as the lean season gets underway. Altogether some 284,000 Malians have fled the north according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 107,000 of them thought to be displaced within Mali; 177,000 in neighbouring countries. New arrivals have pushed refugee numbers to 56,664 in Burkina Faso and to 61,000 in Mauritania, and to 39,388 in Niger, according to UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) . These governments are already struggling to get aid to millions of their inhabitants, who are facing hunger due to drought. Fleeing Malians have told the UNHCR they want to avoid getting caught up in possible conflict if government soldiers or foreign troops intervene in the north.