Bilal Ag Acherif (1977-) was the General-Secretary of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) from 2011 and briefly President of Azawad from 6 April to 12 July 2012.
Biography[]
Bilal Ag Acherif was born in 1977 to a family of Sunni Muslim Tuaregs in the Azawad region of northern Mali. In October 2011 he became the first General Secretary of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), and on 6 April 2012 he was made the first president of a semi-independent Azawad with Mahamadou Djeri Maiga as his Vice-President. On 26 June 2012 he was wounded by the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWA) and taken to Burkina Faso for medical care; on 12 July 2012, the position of President of Azawad was abolished as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb took over northern Mali.