[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.

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.

[4][8] On 3 June 2013, the US State Department's Rewards for Justice program announced a $3 million bounty for information leading to Ould Hamaha's arrest.