The MAA claims to be a secular, non-terrorist organization, whose main objective is to defend the interests of all the Arab peoples of northern Mali.

It was largely composed of Arab militia fighters who had organized to defend Timbuktu during the advance by the forces of the Tuareg National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) and the Islamist Ansar Dine against the city.

The FLNA nevertheless continued its operations in northern Mali, acting independently of both the MNLA and the Islamists, and subsequently changed its name to the Arab Movement of Azawad (MAA).

[7] In December 2012, the MAA claimed to have a "very good relationship" with the Tuareg MNLA in spite of "small differences" between the two organizations,[1] but by the following year both groups were openly hostile to one another.

An MAA spokesman responded by denouncing the intervention, characterizing the French action as providing "open support" to the MNLA.

[9] In early April 2013, the MAA participated in a conference which brought together the leaders of various Arab groups and clans in Azawad.

[13] The MNLA rejected this version of events, claiming instead that the combatants who entered Anefis were members of the Islamist Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO).