The main Tuareg secessionist group, the Mouvement national de libération de l'Azawad, has been losing ground – literally and politically – to pro-government forces. The government-backed Groupe autodéfense touareg imghad et alliés last week seized Ménaka from the MNLA. Despite a United Nations appeal to GATIA to withdraw from this remote town near the Nigerien border, it has not budged. Most local people warmly welcomed GATIA's expulsion of the MNLA.