1. Brief description of the emergency and impact
Following a military coup d’état in Mali in March 2012, a combination of the separatist Tuareg National
Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) and the Islamic jihadist Ansar Dine captured all of the
northern Malian regions of Tombouctou, Gao and Kidal. Large numbers of civilians fled to the Malian
southern regions and to the capital, Bamako, as well as across the borders into neighbouring countries.
Most organizations working on relief and development (including ACT Alliance members) had to
abandon, at least temporarily, their operations in the north; later they resumed assistance in a
restricted way to people that had moved southwards.
On 11 January 2013, France launched a military intervention to assist Malian government forces to fight
off the Islamist groups after they moved south and seized the town of Konna, as well as to stop their
southward advance. The French have continued the air strikes, extending the campaign to Diabali, Lere,
Gao and Douentza; as well as preventing their advance southward.