Kidal, where the attack took place, is considered the "cradle" of the Tuareg separatist movement, which seeks to carve out an ethnic homeland called Azawad in northern Mali. Separatists briefly seized control of major cities in the region and declared Azawadi independence in 2012, but their Islamist allies turned on them and evicted them from their strongholds. Months later, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad agreed to support Malian territorial unity and renounce the independence of Azawad, although the relationship between Tuareg fighters in the north and the Malian military remained tenuous. France, the former colonial power in Mali, intervened in 2013 to drive out Islamist fighters. The United Nations began taking over peacekeeping duties from French troops in northern Mali later that year, forming MINUSMA as its mission in the West African country.