The Sahara's new cargo: drugs and radicalism
A good IMHO article by a known African specialist, Stephen Ellis:
Quote:
A fusion of illicit money-making and radical politics is turning the big empty spaces of the western half of the Sahara into a profound security challenge.
Ends with:
Quote:
The Europeans need to focus much more attention on what really happens in the Sahara.
Simply cannot see that happening.
Link:http://www.opendemocracy.net/stephen...and-radicalism
There is another thread on Mali, a little known country in the Sahara: http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ead.php?t=9254
looking back at Operation Palliser
The BBC has a very interesting interview with General Sir David Julian Richards on Operation Palliser, Britain's intervention in Sierra Leone in May 2000:
The brigadier who saved Sierra Leone
BBC, 15 May 2010 12:01 UK
Quote:
In 2002, Sierra Leone emerged from a decade-long civil war and as Allan Little discovers, much of it was thanks to a little-known British brigadier.
The Paras had been sent to Freetown to simply evacuate foreigners
It was an astonishing thing to witness: the fortunes of a whole country transformed in the space of a few days by a single, decisive intervention.
Eight hundred British paratroopers landed at Freetown airport just as the city was about to slip into the terrifying chaos of a rebel invasion and suddenly, unexpectedly, the shape of Sierra Leone's decade-long civil war was altered.
Or so it seemed to me at the time.
It was, in fact, a little more haphazard than that. And, I've subsequently learned, the British reporters on the ground in West Africa - myself included - seem, unwittingly, to have played a small part in it all.
In the report, Richards notes that he systematically expanded the mission from evacuation of foreign nationals to full-fledged intervention, without initially informing his superiors of the shift:
Quote:
At that meeting, held within hours of the British landing in Sierra Leone, Richards promised the president that Britain would supply arms and ammunition to the government forces.
British helicopters would be made available to move men and material around the battlefield.
And he, General Richards, would, with a small team of British staff officers, take personal command of the war and seek to end it by defeating the rebel forces. In other words, Richards was committing Britain to taking sides in Sierra Leone's civil war.
However, there was one important difficulty. The general's political bosses in London had sent him to carry out a quick evacuation and then leave.
"So," I asked him 10 years on, "you were promising the president all this before you had the political authority from London to do so?"
"Er, yes," he said, "I'm afraid I was, yes."
War plans
For several days, the political leaders in London stuck with the evacuation narrative, while their man on the ground got on with fighting a war.
"Fortunately," he told me, "the military activities and equipment we needed for an evacuation were remarkably similar to what I needed to push back the rebel forces. So in terms of constructing a tale for London, that was useful."
"So wait a minute," I said, "London was kitting you up for a quick evacuation operation, and you decided to use that kit to intervene in the war?"
"Yes," he said.
The Gulf of Guinea: a new focal point?
SWC have touched upon the potential for trouble in West Africa, Guinea and the waters offshore - the Gulf Of Guinea, where there is more piracy than off Somalia and oil shipments go AWOL.
Taken from a commercial offering:
Quote:
Summary
The Gulf of Guinea is staring at a precipice of regional maritime insecurity. The continuing economic, social and political impact is pronounced and will continue unless there is focused investment in both manpower and resources by more capable outside nations or organisations. The loss of $2 billion US to the local annual economy - from offshore oil, fishing, and commercial shipping - is too large a price to pay for a region which is spasmodically emerging from decades of civil war and anarchy.
The region produces 5.4 million barrels of oil per day, and it contains 50.4 billion barrels of proven reserves. Nigeria now supplies 10% of US imported oil and is the world’s eighth largest oil exporter. Events in Afghanistan and Somalia illustrate the dangers that come from the nexus between organised crime, terrorism and failed/failing states. While many look to Africa for an African solution to retake control of their seas, they can’t achieve this without timely Western assistance.
Our collective inactivity is the product of a paucity of constabulary platforms and hamstrung political will which fractures any hope of a comprehensive approach to the problem. So perhaps if we were to learn a lesson or two from Somalia and Afghanistan rather than just identify them, shouldn’t our militaries provide a gentle hand on the tiller and guide the people of the Gulf of Guinea towards a more secure and stable future?
Link:http://www.defenceiq.com/naval-and-m...f-of-guinea-u/
From my armchair this is an issue far beyond the waters and yet again an implied Western naval deployment. Nor setting up local coastguard etc.
Not to overlook the impact of cocaine trafficking.
The Gulf of Guinea: A New Focal Point?
"So perhaps if we were to learn a lesson or two from Somalia and Afghanistan rather than just identify them...."
Impact of cocaine trafficking might be degraded if we learned a lesson from LATAM:
http://ndupress.ndu.edu/cocaine-instability-africa.html
It's NOT Latin America and It's Certainly NOT Kansas
Quote:
Credible politicians and elections are also vital to public integrity. Accordingly, West African states should devise systems to properly restrict, audit, and, when appropriate, sanction political parties, politicians, and donors who engage in influence peddling. A critical component of implementing such a system is developing the capacity, both within government and among watchdog groups, for forensic accounting so authorities can trace the intricate money trail involved. An immediate and simple reform African states can take is to expand requirements for disclosure of political parties' and candidates' financial information such as balance sheets and cash flow statements, measures that have gained widespread support among Latin America's citizen groups and business community. This disclosure information should be updated regularly and made easily accessible so as to help expose suspicious accumulation of wealth to voters.
This author needs desperately to understand the phrase "WAWA*" in all its glory. Such a disclosure would --if it could be enforced--only make others jealous. House alarms in the Congo were the equivalent of a "blue-light" special to the locals.
You cannot safely use a credit card at the top hotel in Abuja, the capitol city of Nigeria. Good luck with financial disclosure. In any case, drug smuggling in West Africa is NOT a new development and is not limited to the western portion of the continent.
Tom
*West Africa Wins Again
Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea
Picked up the other day, an IISS Strategic Comment mainly on piracy off Somalia, but has passages on the situation off the West African coast:
Quote:
Meanwhile, piracy off the West African coast is emerging as a separate threat. Here the modus operandi is quite different. Eight tankers were hijacked – and another 30 attacks thwarted – in the eight months to September 2011.
Link:http://www.iiss.org/publications/str...den-their-net/
International Maritime Bureau
Anything piracy and more
Quote:
13.02.2012: 0250 UTC: Posn: 04:43N - 003:44E, Around 110nm south of Lagos, Nigeria.
Armed pirates chased and fired upon a drifting bulk carrier. Vessel raised alarm and headed towards Lagos. All crew except the bridge team took shelter in the citadel. Due to the continuous firing the Captain and the C/E were shot. The IMB Piracy Reporting Center immediately informed the Nigerian authorities who sent out a rescue team. Due to rough seas the Nigerian naval team could not reach the location. A French Warship in the area which received the warning broadcast went to the aid of the distress vessel and despatched a helicopter. A boarding team boarded the vessel and escorted the vessel to Lagos port. The vessel is presently at Inner anchorage Lagos port. The authorities boarded the vessel and a medical team gave medical assistance to the crew. Later all crew members and the two bodies were taken ashore.
Seems there's more to Nigeria than just pirates.
Pirates, Geography and navigation
From NATO CIMIC's offering:
Quote:
Lloyd’s List reports that on 23 March, the Liberia-flagged chemical and oil tanker Zouzou was hijacked in the Gulf of Guinea by approximately 12 armed pirates. The pirates used a mothership and skiffs for the attack, which is a new tactic that is usually used by Somali pirates. The attackers have since left the vessel, after stealing some items from the ship, leaving the tanker’s crew unharmed.
This Day, a Nigerian news source, reports that, within the past two
months, 22 armed attacks were carried out on ships in the Bight of Benin.
Last year the region reported 58 pirate attacks...
According to IMBs Piracy reporting Centre (PRC) a chemical tanker was attacked by armed pirates on 22 March about 100 nm off Bonny Island, Nigeria. The master triggered the Ship Security Alert System (SSAS) and the crew retreated to the citadel. A nearby US warship responded to the alert. The pirates aborted the attack and the tanker’s crew is safe.
Link:https://www.cimicweb.org/Pages/v6/welcome.html and look for the Mediterranean Basin Review (OK stretching geography a wee bit to the Gulf of Guinea).
Slightly puzzled that a US warship was in the vicinity, just like a French warship in Stan's post. The wonders of navigation in such waters.
Save West Africa from the Drugs Barons
This article by Kofi Annan appeared in the Uk-based 'Observer' newspaper in January 2012, but a SWC reader suggested I have a look:http://kofiannanfoundation.org/newsr...rugswestafrica
The only new item spotted was this, my emphasis:
Quote:
According to a recent report from the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime, in 2009 around a third of the South American cocaine destined for Europe and shipped via West Africa was consumed locally.
A UN estimate true, one wonders if there is anything locally known and verified that would support this? KingJaJa we need you!
French tanker believed held by pirates off Ivory Coast
Just an update:
Quote:
A French-owned Luxembourg-flagged tanker with 17 crew members that went missing off Ivory Coast at the weekend is believed to have been hijacked by Nigerian pirates, the International Maritime Bureau said on Monday.
Note the hub is Nigeria and the commodity sought oil products.
Link:http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...9130A020130204
Guinea-Bissau ex-navy chief in 'drugs arrest'
Another example of the USA's long reach, as the BBC reports:
Quote:
The former chief of the navy in Guinea-Bissau has been arrested and is being transferred to the US, local media have reported. Rear Admiral Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchuto was picked up on a boat in international waters near Cape Verde, a local broadcaster said.
Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-22030847
According to the IISS Military Balance Guinea-Bissau has a navy with two patrol boats and politely notes an EU SSR mission left in August 2010, an Angolan mission in 2012 and an ECOWAS mission then deployed. Well that's everything solved WAWA.
IIRC a Cape Verde VIP was in Washington DC last week, part of an African delegation visiting the Pentagon.
Bissau president implicated in U.S. drugs case
It gets better! First a rear admiral, now the president is looking at being indicted in the USA.
Link:http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...9370YD20130408