Watching Tanzania: catch all
An odd story from Tanzania, which starts with:
Quote:
Tanzanian police broke up an al-Shabaab training operation in Tanga region, arresting 69 suspects and freeing dozens of recruits ranging from 4 to 13 years old in a security sweep carried out October 28th to November 5th.....The presence of al-Shabaab in the district came to light in the last week of October (2013), when aggrieved citizens notified local government officials about the training camp located in the Lwande forest. ....four al-Shabaab trainers had arrived in Kilindi district in 2008...
Link:http://sabahionline.com/en_GB/articl.../15/feature-01
A lack of official awareness is one thing, it happens. What is important is that mainland Tanzania is not know for radical Islam, let alone sympathy for the violent Joihad (Zanzibar is somewhat different). I exclude the 1998 US Embassy bombing, which IIRC was an externally sourced attack.
Tanzania has a difficult demographic:
Quote:
According to recent estimates 37% of the population is Muslim, 38.1% Christian, 19.6% practices Animism, while 5.4% of the population is unaffiliated or follows other religions.[64][65] Of Muslims, 16% are Ahmadiyya, 20% are non-denominational Muslims, 40% are Sunni, 20% are Shia and 4% are Sufi.
Zanzibar is about 97 percent Muslim. On the mainland, Muslim communities are concentrated in coastal areas, with some large Muslim majorities also in inland urban areas especially and along the former caravan routes.
Link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanzania and the wider situation:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14095868
Heroin funding terrorism and a ship off Tanzania
An AFP report which is IMHO very significant if terrorism is directly funded by the such traffic in heroin and for regional LE. From the sub-title:
Quote:
HMAS Melbourne discover vessel carrying heroin with a street value of £380 million off the coast of Tanzania during terrorism deterrent mission in the region
Link to story in DTelegraph:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...-Tanzania.html
The Australian Navy statement includes:
Quote:
These seizures have severely impacted the funding network of those terrorist organisations that rely on these shipments for income.
Less clear is what the RAN actually did with the vessel and crew:
Quote:
A team from the frigate seized the drugs, took samples and destroyed the remainder.
A few photos here:http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-0...s-haul/5246840
The ship is part of the currently Australian-led CTF 150, which:
Quote:
The task force conducts maritime security and interdiction operations to deter terrorism and promote peace and security in the maritime regions of the Middle East and Indian Ocean.
I don't watch this region that closely, but cannot recall such a large seizure of heroin before. Where was the ship heading? Southwards towards South Africa I suspect.
Anyway an interesting event.;)
The African “Smack Track”
Quote:
Shipments of heroin are unloaded from dhows and cargo ships off the shores of Kenya and Tanzania, and taken ashore on small speedboats. They are then broken up into still smaller packages before being “muled” to Europe from international airports in Kenya and Ethiopia. Sometimes they are consolidated and sent by lorry to South Africa for onward shipping. Some of the heroin enters the African market to feed nascent demand, particularly in Zanzibar, Mombasa and Dar es Salaam, where heroin use is slowly rising. Heroin is also smuggled to consumers in South Africa and Nigeria. In Kenya and Tanzania criminal gangs with close ties to political and security elites control the trans-shipment.
Link, behind a registration wall:www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21639560-east-african-states-are-being-undermined-heroin-smuggling-smack-track?
http://cdn.static-economist.com/site...117_MAM953.png
Undermining development: corruption
A rare report on Tanzania in The Guardian:http://www.theguardian.com/global-de...poster-sellers
A taster:
Quote:
In 2013, Tanzania was the
second biggest recipient of foreign aid in sub-Saharan Africa, receiving $3.43bn (£2.19m) from donors. Despite years of relative peace, and economic growth of
more than 5% annually for the past decade, around two-thirds of its nearly 49 million people still live in poverty.