Omar Ould Hamaha

Oumar Ould Hamaha (or Oumar Ould Hamaha; born 1965) is an Islamist militia commander from Northern Mali. During the 2012 Northern Mali conflict he became known as the spokesman of the militant group Ansar Dine. Since August 2012 he has been the military leader of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWA).

Ould Hamaha was born in Bèr, Tombouctou Region of Mali. He is the son of a military camel driver and member of the Arab ethnicity. In 1984, he graduated from the Franco-Arabic lycée in Timbuktu. Instead of going to university, he opted to study the Koran at a Mauritanian madrasa. Returned to Timbuktu in 1990, he was refused preaching licence at the Grand Mosque. 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. Influenced by Pakistani preachers, he embraced Salafist teachings.

In the 2000s, he joined Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and became the deputy of its leader, Mokhtar Belmokhtar. The Canadian diplomat Robert Fowler, who was abducted by AQIM in Niger in 2008, identified Ould Hamaha as one of his kidnappers. After 1 April 2012, he became publicly known as the spokesman of the Islamist militant group Ansar Dine. In August 2012, he became the chief of staff of MOJWA, which is closely linked with AQIM. Together with its allied Islamist groups AQIM, and Ansar Dine, the MOJWA has controlled Northern Mali since they won the Battle of Gao in June 2012.

Ould Hamaha's nom de guerre is Hakka (French pronunciation of "AK", alluding to his skill at handling the AK-47 assault rifle). He is also known as the "red-bearded" for his henna-dyed goatee beard. Besides Arabic, Ould Hamaha speaks French and Songhay.