The Kel Adagh — also called the Ifoghas or Iforas — are the Tuareg confederation of northeastern Mali, taking their name from the Adrar des Iforas massif on the borders of Mali, Algeria, and Niger that constitutes their territorial heart. They speak a southern variety of Tamasheq closely related to the Iwellemmedan to the south and west and somewhat more distantly to the Kel Aïr to the east and the Kel Ahaggar to the north.
The confederation is conventionally divided into a number of constituent tribes, with the Kel Tedjehe Mellet (the "white" or noble Tedjehe) and the Kel Tedjehe Settafan (the "black" Tedjehe, of mixed or vassal origin) the largest, alongside the Idnan, the Iboghollitan, and the Imghad of varying status. The Amenokal of the Kel Adagh has historically been drawn from the Tedjehe Mellet lineage and based at Kidal in the modern period.
The Kel Adagh have been at the centre of the post-independence Tuareg political mobilisations in Mali. The 1962–1964 Alfellaga rebellion, the 1990–1995 rebellion that produced the National Pact of 1992, the 2006–2009 second rebellion, and the 2012 declaration of the Azawad and the subsequent civil war have all had their political and military centre in the Adrar and have drawn principally on Kel Adagh leadership, with Iyad ag Ghali among the most prominent figures.
Contemporary Kel Adagh political life is severely constrained by the post-2012 security situation in northern Mali. Substantial numbers of Kel Adagh have been displaced to refugee camps in Mauritania, Algeria, and Niger; the pastoral economy of the surrounding Sahara has been compromised; and the cultural transmission of language and tradition is operating at considerable strain.