Bilal Ag Acherif (Arabic: بلال أغ الشريف; born 1977), last name alternatively spelled Cherif,[1] is the Secretary-General of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) in Mali.

He was president of a briefly independent breakaway state of Azawad[2][3] from April to July 2012, before the Malian Armed Forces recaptured many cities and Azawad collapsed.

[4] On 6 April 2012, he posted a statement to its website in which he declared the independence of Azawad from Mali.

On 26 June 2012, he was wounded in clashes between MNLA fighters and the Islamist Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa during the northern Mali conflict.

[7][8] In the months after his presidency he met with Cyril Vainer in Paris to discuss the Mali War.