The new militia declared itself independent from the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, an alliance of Tuareg groups that formed in late 2011 in northern Mali. Hassan Ag Medhi — a former colonel in the Malian army and a member of the previous iteration of the Front for the Liberation of the Azawad — announced the formation of the new group in Ouagadougou, the capital of neighboring Burkina Faso. The militia primarily consists of members of the Gao region's Chamanama ethnic group. Militias in Mali's Azawad Region The fractious ethnic landscape in northern Mali has kept any alliances from staying together for any significant period of time. Along with erstwhile Islamist allies Ansar Dine and the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, the secular National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad began the rebellion by calling for secession or autonomy for northern Mali's Azawad region.