Ménaka Cercle is an administrative subdivision of the Gao Region of Mali. Its administrative center is the town of Ménaka. Ménaka Cercle's population as of 2009 was 56,104 people. Ménaka Cercle is a rural, isolated, and largely desert area, crisscrossed by seasonal wadis, part of an ancient dry river system of the Azawagh region (the Iullemmeden Basin). The area includes the rocky outcrops of the Ader Douchi hills. Most of the small population are nomadic are Tuareg tribal populations, as well as nomadic minorities, including the Wodaabe Fula and sedentary Songhai people. The area is a traditional center of the Kel Dinnik Tuareg confederation, with the town of Andéramboukane, near the Nigerien border, being one historic center for transhumance communities. During the 2012 Tuareg rebellion, it was part of Azawad, the northern part of Mali that was separated and declared independent by the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA). In the course of the conflict, the MNLA lost their control of the territory to Islamist militias. On March 6, 2013, the Islamists lost control of the village of Tin Keraten, a village directly next to the Gao Cercle, and near the border of the Ansongo Cercle, to French and Malian troops in the Battle of Tin Keraten, becoming the first village in the Ménaka Cercle to come under allied control during the war.