• Director(s):

    HAMIDA (LAURENT), JOULIE (OLIVIER)

  • Producer(s):

    ARTE GEIE, CAMICAS PRODUCTIONS

  • Territories:

    Worldwide.

  • Production year:

    2012

  • Language(s):

    German, French

  • Rights:

    NON-THEATRICAL, TV, VOD, DVD, INTERNET

On 10 April 2012, the Tuaregs of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad unilaterally declared the independence of a Northern Mali territory twice the size of France.

Following the insurrection, Arte Reportage was able to travel to the porous borders of the Sahel to try and interpret a highly complex and volatile situation involving different movements - nationalist Tuaregs, Islamist groups and AQIM jihadists. This latter group, a thorn in the side of Western leaders, does not hide its ambition, which is to take advantage of the prevailing chaos to establish the jihad at the gates of Europe.

ARTE Reportage discovers the violence of a war that has opposed Bamako and the region's Tuaregs since independence. The war is the scar of a nearly 50 year-old post-colonial conflict. Destroyed villages, land-burning policies, and the bloody repression of the population provide a fertile ground for the taking root and proliferation of a radical Islamism that weaves its web by feeding off regional tensions, such as those in Somalia or in Pakistani tribal zones.