[1] During the 2012 Northern Mali conflict he became known alternatively as the spokesman and chief of staff for both Ansar Dine[2] and Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWA),[3][4] militant groups associated with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

After his brother, who was a fighter of the Arab Islamic Front of Azawad, was killed by the Malian army during the Tuareg rebellion of the early 1990s, Ould Hamaha went underground.

[5] Ould Hamaha's actual position in both of these groups was undefined, with one commentator describing him as "a spokesman for the [Islamist] coalition" that ruled Northern Mali.

[2] After France's intervention into Northern Mali in January 2013, Ould Hamaha, along with Mokhtar Belmokhtar, eluded capturing by French and MINUSMA forces.

At the end of May 2013, two near simultaneous suicide attacks at a uranium mine and military barracks in Northern Niger were claimed both by MOJWA and Belmokhtar's breakaway organization, Katibat al-Mulathimeen or "The Masked Brigade."

[7] On 22 August 2013, Mauritania's news agency, ANI, reported that MOJWA and Belmokhtar's brigade had merged to form al-Murabitun, in reference to the 11th Century Almoravid Dynasty of Morocco and Southern Spain.