Tinzaouaten (var. Tin-Zaouatene) is a Saharan oasis town in the far northeast of Mali, just 4.5 km from the Algerian border. A stop on the Trans-Saharan trade route for at least a thousand years, and garrison town under the French colonial regime, in 1999 Tinzaouaten had a population of 4000, of which 1600 are nomads who only reside there part of the year. The town is divided in to a Tuareg or Berber quarter, and a quarter inhabited by Malians descended from the Songhai Empire who controlled the town in the 16th century.
Tinzaouaten is a rural commune in the VIIIth or Kidal Region.
The town is home to Tuareg rebel leader Ibrahim Ag Bahanga, and has been a center point of the Malian fighting in the Tuareg Rebellion (2007–present).[1]
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