He is thought to be born at the end of the 1950s in the Adrar des Ifoghas massif.

His father of the Kel Adagh tribe was killed by the Malian army in the 1963 Tuareg rebellion at a time where he was a young child.

He served in Libya and in Chad before returning to Mali to take part in the 1990 Tuareg rebellion led by Iyad Ag Ghaly.

He then returned to Libya, rejecting the peace agreement signed between the Malian government and the Tuareg rebels.

He became a colonel in the Libyan army and was put in charge of an elite unit in the city of Sabha.