Africa's 'Blue Men' Flee Desert

A COUPLE of miles outside this ancient African town, Ibrahim Malale lies on the ground, protected from the sand-blast wind by only a short, reed mat and a worn blanket.

Ibrahim is one of the victims of a little-understood desert rebellion, under way for nearly two years in the vast Sahara, between the traditionally nomadic Tuaregs and the Malian Army.

Tuaregs claim that the Army has randomly killed many of their animals, stolen their young girls to become unwilling brides, and killed many Tuareg civilians in Mali's northern desert region.

The Malian government claims that the Tuaregs are foreign-trained. A Western diplomat in Bamako, the Malian capital, says they are Libyan-trained bandits, who steal four-wheel-drive vehicles and kill soldiers and civilians.

Both sides agree that Tuaregs have never gotten their share of development aid in Mali, even in times of severe drought. And in the latest of periodic negotiations, held on Jan. 22 in the Algerian capital of Algiers, both sides agreed to a cease-fire as of Feb. 8.

Tuaregs are the famed "hommes bleus," or "blue men," desert nomads nicknamed after their dark-blue turbans. The color eventually rubs off onto their tan skin.

In the 15th century, the Tuaregs attacked Timbuktu and have ruled it several times since then. They are - or were - kings and queens of the Sahara, roaming freely, long after colonial powers drew lines in the sand in the 19th century, defining Mauritania, Algeria, Niger, and Mali as Tuareg country.

Today's Tuaregs are survivors. No one knows how many thousands of them starved in the severe droughts of the early 1970s and mid-'80s, which also decimated their herds of camels and other livestock. Governments in the area estimate that 1 million Tuaregs are left in Africa today. Tuareg rebel leaders claim that they number 2 million.

One thing is clear: In the last couple of years, tens of thousands of Tuaregs have fled Mali as a result of their conflict with the Malian Army.

According to Western relief officials, many now lack food and medicine in temporary camps along the Malian, Mauritanian, and Algerian borders. Some children have died in at least one of the camps, says Monique Lherm, a non-Tuareg living in Paris who has done development work with Tuaregs in Niger and Mali.

After a local security force attacked and killed a leading Tuareg resident of Timbuktu in December 1991 following a Tuareg attack on the town, most Tuareg residents fled to the desert.

Ibrahim and many Tuaregs living on the dunes around Timbuktu also ran away. Ibrahim, his wife, and their six-year-old son, Mohammed, went to a village several miles from here. When they returned in January, they discovered that grazing donkeys had eaten the reed mats covering their traditional home.

"If there's peace, we'll stay," says Ibrahim. As soon as he recovers from an illness, he says, he will rebuild his home. Meanwhile, though too weak to stand, he apologizes for not having any tea to offer his guests.

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