The declaration was made in a statement posted online by the secretary general of the Azawad National Liberation Movement (MNLA).

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Perhaps emboldened by liberation in Tunisia and Libya, in January 2012, the National Liberation Movement of Azawad (MNLA) and Ansar Dine, the most prominent Tuareg armed groups, launched a rebellion that pushed the government from northern Mali.

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But the alliance quickly collapsed, and the Islamists drove out the Tuareg separatist group - the National Movement Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) - from the main cities and towns in the north.

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Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela at first advocated peaceful opposition to white rule in early work with the African National Congress, a liberation movement.

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Our correspondent says French forces who entered Kidal found members of the secular National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) there.

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The Islamists formed a broad and loose coalition in northern Mali, but only after they had allied with, and then turned against, the Tuareg separatists of National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA).

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Late last year Ansar Dine, a jihadist group constituted largely of local Tuareg, even joined the peace talks that the government had already started with the secular Tuareg rebels of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA).

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While the main Tuareg rebel group, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (known by its French acronym, MNLA), did much of the early fighting, Ansar Dine took control of cities such as Timbuktu as government forces fled.

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Besides the crucial city of Kidal, which is now under the de facto rule of the rebel National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad, numerous towns and villages are still not fully under the government's control, making it unclear how they will carry out the vote.

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The outgoing government of Fidel Ramos had similar hopes of success, and in 1996 signed a peace deal with the Moro National Liberation Front, the main independence movement.

ECONOMIST: Philippines