Ménaka is a rural commune

Communes of Mali

A Commune is the third level administrative unit in Mali. Mali is divided into eight regions and one capital district . These subdivisions bear the name of their principal city. The regions are divided into 49 Cercles...

 and town in Menaka Cercle

Menaka Cercle

Ménaka Cercle is an administrative subdivision of the Gao Region of Mali. Its administrative center is the town of Ménaka. Ménaka Cercle's population as of 2009 was 56,104 people. Ménaka Cercle is a rural, isolated, and largely desert area, crisscrossed by seasonal wadis, part of an ancient dry...

, Gao Region

Gao Region

The Gao Region is located in eastern Mali. The region's capital city is Gao. Gao Region is bordered to the south and east by Niger, to the north by Kidal Region, and to the west by Tombouctou Region. Common ethnicities in the Gao Region include the Songhai, Bozo, Tuareg, Bambara, and Kounta...

, in the far east of Mali

Mali

Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...

. It is the local government seat and largest town in the Cercle, and one of four rural communes. Ménaka is in the midst of the Saharan desert, along wadi

Wadi

Wadi is the Arabic term traditionally referring to a valley. In some cases, it may refer to a dry riverbed that contains water only during times of heavy rain or simply an intermittent stream.-Variant names:...

 Ezgeuret, and ancient dry river valley of the Iullemmeden Basin

Iullemmeden Basin

The Iullemmeden Basin is a major sub-Saharan inland basin in West Africa, extending about 1000 km north to south and 800 km east to west...

.

Ménaka Cercle is a rural, isolated, and largely desert area, crisscrossed by seasonal wadi

Wadi

Wadi is the Arabic term traditionally referring to a valley. In some cases, it may refer to a dry riverbed that contains water only during times of heavy rain or simply an intermittent stream.-Variant names:...

s, part of the Azaouad

Azaouad

Azaouad, Azawad, or Azawagh is the collective non-officially recognized name for the main Tamashek-speaking parts of northern Mali, northern Niger, and part of southern Algeria. Azawad is mainly made up of Sahelian and Saharan vast flat lands inhabited by Tuareg nomads...

 region. The area includes the rocky outcrops of the Ader Douchi hills, in the midst of which Ménaka town sits. Its highest point, Mount Abourak, lies across dunes around 150 km to the north.

Most of the small population are nomadic Tuareg tribal populations, as well as nomad

Nomad

Nomadic people , commonly known as itinerants in modern-day contexts, are communities of people who move from one place to another, rather than settling permanently in one location. There are an estimated 30-40 million nomads in the world. Many cultures have traditionally been nomadic, but...

ic minorities, including the Wodaabe

Wodaabe

The Wodaabe or Bororo are a small subgroup of the Fulani ethnic group. They are traditionally nomadic cattle-herders and traders in the Sahel, with migrations stretching from southern Niger, through northern Nigeria, northeastern Cameroon, and the western region of the Central African Republic....

 Fula

Fula people

Fula people or Fulani or Fulbe are an ethnic group spread over many countries, predominantly in West Africa, but found also in Central Africa and Sudanese North Africa...

 and sedentary Songhai people. The area is a traditional center of the Kel Dinnik Tuareg confederation — as well as the smaller Iwellemeden Kel Kummer, with the town of Andéramboukane

Andéramboukane

Andéramboukane is a small town and one of five Rural Communes in the Ménaka Cercle and Gao Region of Mali. It lies at the extreme east of the nation, several kilometers north of the Nigerien border....

, near the Nigerien border, being one historic center for their transhumance communities. Andéramboukane is 100 km south on the main road, which runs through Ménaka, west 210 km to Ansongo

Ansongo

Ansongo is a Rural Commune and small town in the Gao Region of south-eastern Mali. The town lies on the left bank of the Niger River 90 km south of Gao. It is the administrative center for the surrounding Ansongo Cercle. The commune has an area of 445 km2 and had a population of 32,709...

 on the Niger River

Niger River

The Niger River is the principal river of western Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in southeastern Guinea...

, and a further 95 km north to the regional capitol of Gao

Gao

Gao is a town in eastern Mali on the River Niger lying ESE of Timbuktu. Situated on the left bank of the river at the junction with the Tilemsi valley, it is the capital of the Gao Region and had a population of 86,663 in 2009....

. The town is served by Menaka Airport

Menaka Airport

Ménaka Airport is an airport serving Ménaka, a town and commune in the Ménaka Cercle in the Gao Region of Mali.The airport resides at an elevation of above mean sea level. It has one runway that is long....

.

Tuareg rebellions

The Menaka area was a center of Ag El Insar Firhoun's Malian rising of larger 1916 Tuareg Rebellion

Kaocen Revolt

The Kaocen Revolt was a Tuareg rebellion against French colonial rule of the area around the Aïr Mountains of northern Niger during 1916-17.-1916 rising:Ag Mohammed Wau Teguidda Kaocen was the Tuareg leader of the rising against the French...

, and was a government garrison town in the 1961–1964, 1990–1995, and the 2007–present Tuareg Rebellions

Tuareg Rebellion (2007–present)

The Tuareg Rebellion of 2007-2009 was an insurgency that began in February 2007 amongst elements of the Tuareg people living in the Sahara desert regions of northern Mali and Niger. It is only the most recent of a series of insurgencies by formerly nomadic Tuareg populations, which had last...

. Most recently, Menaka was put under siege and the military post sacked by former rebels who had been integrated into the Malian Army in a short term rising in May–July 2006. The current May 23, 2006 Democratic Alliance for Change

May 23, 2006 Democratic Alliance for Change

The May 23, 2006 Democratic Alliance for Change is a Malian Tuareg rebel group, formed in 2006 by ex-combatants from the 1990s Tuareg insurgency in Mali. In 2007, splinters of the organisation returned to combat in northern Mali, launching the Malian element of the 2007 Tuareg insurgency...

 rebel group dates from this siege.

2009 kidnappings

On 25 November, a Frenchman called Pierre Camatte was taken hostage from a hotel in Ménaka city. A January 2010 statement issued by the north African branch of al-Qaeda, sets an ultimatum of 20 days for the exchange of four of al-Qaeda members by Pierre Camatte, after which, it says, the French and Malian governments "will be fully responsible for the French hostage's life".

Slavery

Malian and international Human Rights organisations pointed to Menaka in 2008, as one of several towns in the Gao Region

Gao Region

The Gao Region is located in eastern Mali. The region's capital city is Gao. Gao Region is bordered to the south and east by Niger, to the north by Kidal Region, and to the west by Tombouctou Region. Common ethnicities in the Gao Region include the Songhai, Bozo, Tuareg, Bambara, and Kounta...

 in which informal slavery

Slavery

Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...

 relations persist between noble caste Tuareg pastoralists and thousands of sedentary low caste Bellah

Bellah

Bellah is a surname, and may refer to:* James Warner Bellah , pulp fiction writer* Robert N. Bellah , American sociologist...

Tuareg.