[3] Overall casualties were deplored at nine MNLA troops' wounded some with serious injuries, including Colonel Ag Mechkanine a deputy Staff.

As the Malian army was no longer present in Menaka, the city was defended by a militia of 60 to 70 Tuaregs of the tribe of the Oulimeden.

However, these statements are contradicted by Bajan Ag Hamatou, deputy of the city and chief of the tribe of the Oulimeden: "the MNLA can say what it wants.

Faced with unequal forces, Tuareg militiamen decided to call in support MNLA fighters who had 60 vehicles in the area.

The local Tuareg militia set up their line of defense on a large dune, in front of the entrance to the city, near the Guards Camp.

Reinforcements help relieve tension amidst the column and bombard the MNLA defenses with rocket launchers, mortars, and heavy weaponry.

Fighting resumes the next morning on 20 November, with Islamists penetrating MNLA defenses and substantially gaining ground.

[5][6][7][8] On 21 November, in an official statement issued by Moussa Ag Assarid, the MNLA states that the fighting in Menaka is 6 dead and 6 wounded for its troops, compared with 36 killed by the MUJAO and AQIM forces.

The jihadist commander Omar Ould Hamaha, for his part, says he does not know "the exact number of dead in the ranks of the MNLA" but adds: "our elements have counted more than a hundred.

In early December 2012, hundreds of fighters from the tribe of the Ulysseden, furious to have been abandoned by the MNLA in Menaka, decided to join Ansar Dine.