Iwellemmedan people

The Iwellemmedan (Iwəlləmədǎn), also spelled Iullemmeden, Aulliminden, Ouilliminden, Lullemmeden, and Iwellemmeden, are one of the seven major Tuareg tribal or clan confederations (called "Drum groups").

The Iwellemmeden inhabit a wide area ranging from east and north central Mali, through the Azawagh valley, into northwestern Niger and south into northern Nigeria.

Component "free" clans (mostly "maraboutic" or "Imajeghen" tribes which inherit local religious leadership) include the Tahabanaten and Ighatafan.

Ruling caste clans lead the large confederations, and engage in seasonal migration, herding, trade, war, and religious duties.

Regardless, by the mid-15th century CE, the Iwellemmedan controlled an area from Lake Faguibine and north of Timbuktu east through all of what is now the Gao Region of Mali, into the Nigerien Azawagh all the way to the edge of the Aïr Massif.

[1] Their resistance to French conquest cost them dearly, with the deaths of much of their warrior class, and the eventual favoriting of the Kidal based Kel Ifoghas by the colonial power.

However, severe droughts in 1972 and 1982 forced the nomadic Iwellemmedan to migrate south to Nigeria in search of grazing areas for their animal herds.