The Secretary-General of the MNLA,
Bilal Ag Acherif, signed the declaration in Gao, the site of the largest Malian military outpost in the north, on 6 April 2012. It also cited as reasoning
France's unilateral attachment of the region to Mali despite an appeal to French President
Charles de Gaulle. The document concluded by adding that the new state declared by the MNLA would recognise international state borders,
Reactions The day before the declaration, the Foreign Ministry of
Algeria said that an armed faction raided the Algerian consulate in the northeast kidnapping the consul and six staff members. Though Attaher called it "deplorable", he said the MNLA went along with the action in order not to result in deaths. The
AFP also quoted a Malian military source as saying that to the best of Malian Army's intelligence "the MNLA is in charge of nothing at the moment... it is Iyad
Ag Ghaly] who is the strongest and he is with AQIM". Some of the MLNA's leadership were also said to have been surprised by the declaration. Europe-based Hama Ag Sid'Ahmed, one of the spokesmen of the MNLA and the head of external relations, said: "I think it's premature – premature to speak of this right now, without a consultation and an understanding with some of the actors that are very active on the local level, and with which we need to work, and we need to find common objectives, common strategies."
Supranational bodies • : The AU rejected the UDI as "null and of no value whatsoever" and appealed to the rest of the world to ignore it. The AU's commission chairperson
Jean Ping's office issued a statement that read he "calls on the international community as a whole to fully support this principled position of Africa". ECOWAS announced preparations for a 3,000 personnel intervention force to contain the rebels and protect the
Constitution of Mali. • : The spokeswoman for the Representative for Foreign Affairs,
Catherine Ashton, said that the EU respected Mali's territorial integrity.
States • : Prime Minister
Ahmed Ouyahia said Azawad's northern neighbour country would never "accept questioning Mali's territorial integrity". However, he also rejected foreign intervention and called for a solution through dialogue. • : Chris Day, an aide to Foreign Minister
John Baird, stated that Canada's position on Azawad's independence: "We’re absolutely not recognising this declaration. We are closely monitoring events on the ground." • : Defence Minister
Gérard Longuet reacted by saying: "A unilateral declaration of independence which is not recognised by African states would not have any meaning for us." On the other hand, Valero admitted that "the demands of the northern Tuareg population are old and for too long had not received adequate and necessary responses". France, however, also indicated it would offer military assistance to the ECOWAS force aimed at stabilising Mali and containing the rebels. • : Patrick Ventrell, a spokesman of the
U.S. State Department stated: "We reject the MNLA's statement of independence and reiterate our call for the territorial integrity of Mali."
Academia Alessandra Giuffrida of the African Studies Department at the
School of Oriental and African Studies said: The MNLA is taking advantage of a new situation, i.e. the lack of a constitutional government in Bamako, which means the MNLA could claim independence of the Azawad, according to international law. This is a new fact which has never occurred before in the history of Tuareg secessionist rebellions. According to some international law experts, this actually gives the Tuareg some ground to fight legally for the independence of their state. [The international reactions reflect that] there is an interest in maintaining the status quo, an economic interest in the north of Mali after the discovery of mineral resources. ==See also==