| Honorific Prefix: | Amghar |
| Bilal Ag Alcherif | |
| Office1: | President of the Transitional Council of the State of Azawad |
| Term Start1: | 6 April 2012 |
| Term End1: | 12 July 2012 |
| Predecessor1: | Position established |
| Successor1: | Position abolished |
| Vicepresident1: | Mahamadou Djeri Maïga |
| Office2: | General Secretary of the MNLA |
| Term Start2: | October 2011 |
| Predecessor2: | Position established |
| Birth Place: | Kidal Region, Mali |
| Nationality: | Azawadi |
Bilal Ag Acherif (; born 1977), last name alternatively spelled Cherif, is the Secretary-General of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) in Mali. He was president of a briefly independent breakaway state of Azawad[1] [2] from April to July 2012, before the Malian Armed Forces recaptured many cities and Azawad collapsed.
He was born in the Kidal Region of Mali in 1977. He went to Libya in 1993 to study political science, returning to Mali in 2010.[3]
On 6 April 2012, he posted a statement to its website in which he declared the independence of Azawad from Mali.[4] On May 26, 2012 he made a pact with Ansar Dine, an Islamic organization, in which they would together form an Islamic state.[5] Azawad was supported by Ansar Dine from 2012 to 2017. It was not recognized by any nation or entity.
On 26 June 2012, he was wounded in clashes between MNLA fighters and the Islamist Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa during the northern Mali conflict. According to an MNLA spokesperson, he was taken to Burkina Faso for medical care.[6] [7]
In the months after his presidency he met with Cyril Vainer in Paris to discuss the Mali War.[8]
In 2014, Bilal Ag Acherif took over the presidency of the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA), until being succeeded by Alghabass Ag Intalla on December 16, 2016.