The Tuareg People

The Tuareg people are a semi-nomadic group indigenous to parts of Southern Algeria, Northern Mali, and Northern Niger. The Tuaregs are considered part of the Berber (also known as Amazigh) ethnic group that is indigenous to North Africa. It is currently believed that the Tuareg migrated from what is today known as Libya in the 6th century down to the North-West African Saharan region. They are both ethnic and cultural minorities in all of the countries they inhabit, and their global population is estimated between 750,000 and 1.5 million. Although the Tuareg represent a small proportion of the population in these countries, they occupy a very large territory of land. The traditional settlement area of the Tuareg people covers approximately 2.5 million square kilometers, a size that is comparable to that of Western Europe. Though because they are primarily settled in the Sahara, this area is sparsely populated
They are distributed unevenly among several states: approximately 500,000 in Mali, 700,000 in Niger, 20,000 in northern Burkina Faso, 30,000 in Libya, 50,000 in Algeria and a few thousand in Tunisia. Over 80 % of Tuareg populations are concentrated in the northern part of Mali and Niger. They lead a semi-nomadic and pastoral lifestyle. Their professions
The literature seems to suggest that it is difficult to discern if Tamashek is one language with many varieties or several languages with additional varieties. The popular separation as per Heath’s Grammar of Tamashek is Tamasheq (Mali), Tamajaq (Niger), Tamahaq (Algeria). According to Ethnologue, Tamashek is a macrolanguage with a total of 1,248,200 people globally. This statistic includes all three distinct languages cited by Heath. The writing system is called Tifinagh; the origin of which is unclear but is thought to be a descendant of ancient Berber or Phoenician scripts. However, the Latin script is the official alphabet of Tamashek in both Mali and