In the wake of a public protest in Timbuktu, Azawad, against the Islamist presence there, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) sent its chief of staff, Colonel Muhammad Ag Najim, to the city to reassure the local population. He promised the locals that the MNLA's goal in "liberat[ing] our territory from the Malian colonization" was to build rather than destroy, and denounced those "charged with ensuring security" who had "destroyed and pillaged," saying that the MNLA had mistakenly trusted them "mainly due to inexperience." An April 25, 2012 French-language article on the website of the news agency Toumast Press discussed the issue, and provided excerpts of the colonel's statement.
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