Mali mainly, 2012 coup, drugs & more
Letter from Timbuktu, by Austin Merrill. Vanity Fair Web Exclusive, September 10, 2007. http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/09/sahara200709
Quote:
The Pentagon has allotted $500 million to the fight against terrorism in the Sahara Desert, using American Special Forces teams to train African armies and befriend locals. Vanity Fair was invited to join the U.S. military on a recent mission to Timbuktu, Mali, to get an up-close look at one of the lesser-known fronts in the battle against al-Qaeda.
by Austin Merrill WEB EXCLUSIVE September 10, 2007
Guinea-Bissau and the drug trade?
Over the past few years or so(since at least 2006) elements of Columbian drug cartels have been setting up business in the West African nation of Guinea-Bissau, In hopes of both getting out up of an increasingly hostile environment in Columbia for the cartels as well as finding a route to further their trade into Europe. From what I understand the Columbian Cartels and other elements of the drug trade from Latin America have been stepping up their business in the West African nation, especially recently. Also I’ve heard that the Columbians/Latin Americans in Guinea-Bissau are being joined by other organizations like criminal gangs/mafias from Russia and Eastern Europe as well as militant groups from the Middle East like Hezbollah have set up shop there also, all trying to make money from the illicit trade recently established in the West African nation.
So I was wondering if any SWJ members would mind telling me more about what is happening Guinea-Bissau and where I could find more information on the drug trade recently established there and whether all of this is overblown or not?
Thank you,
She's alright, She's alright, She's alright....
Mali mainly and drugs in West Africa
(Moderator's Note Athis appeared as a RFI and was moved to the Africa thread 27/6/2010, where it sits better now; PM to originator. Mod's Note BTitle of thread changed to reflect two subjects covered Mali mainly and drugs in the region).
Does anyone know anything about Mali please? I'm about to do some research on the place and given the level of expertise in here thought that SWJ was a good place to start.
Are there any security issues there? Any potential conflict?
Historical involvement in conflicts around Africa?
Sorry to be so Billy Basic but I have to start this off somewhere!
French hostage stirs up a storm
The BBC:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8533195.stm
Quote:
A French hostage who was being held by al-Qaeda's North African wing in Mali has been freed days after four militants were released from jail. The group had threatened to kill Pierre Camatte, abducted from a hotel near the border with Niger on 25 November, if its four members were not set free. Mali's authorities said the four had served their sentences and were due to be freed.
But their release sparked outrage in Algeria and Mauritania.
French President Sarkozy meets French ex-hostage in Mali:http://af.reuters.com/article/topNew...61O01G20100225
Al-Qaeda frees abducted Italian couple in Mali
Saharan states to open joint HQ
BBC reports:
Quote:
Four Saharan desert states are to open a joint command headquarters in Algeria to co-ordinate efforts to counter the growing regional threat from al-Qaeda. The Joint Military Staff Committee of Algeria, Mali, Mauritania and Niger will be based in Tamanrasset (Algeria).
Link:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8633851.stm
Now will AFRICOM have a relationship with this effort?
Pointer to a useful website
For two (unread) papers on AQIM, hat tip to the website too:http://www.jihadica.com/new-aqim-reports/#comments
France targets 'al-Qaeda militants' in Mauritania
From the BBC:
Quote:
France has confirmed it took part in a raid against alleged al-Qaeda militants alongside Mauritanian troops.
Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-10738467
A little more on the Mali mission
From the BBC:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-10765891
Opens with:
Quote:
Islamist militants in the Sahara Desert are exploiting differences between neighbouring countries to continue to roam around the lawless region unhindered.
The killing of French hostage Michel Germaneau by al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), and the continued threat to other hostages still being held, has cast these differences into sharp relief.
from what i've been reading
from what i've been reading and hearing Western Africa is the next global hot spot.
Has al-qaeda started a feud with the tuareg?
An interesting report on how feuding hinders the 'struggle':http://www.jamestown.org/programs/gta/single/?tx_ttnews[tt_news]=36764&tx_ttnews[backPid]=26&cHash=49c037ace5
On Mali:
Quote:
Mali is still struggling with a simmering Tuareg insurgency in its vast and poorly controlled northern region. Colonel Hassan Ag Fagaga, a noted Tuareg rebel, has threatened to resume the insurgency if the government does not implement the terms of the 2008 Algiers Accord (El Khabar, July 15). Colonel Ag Fagaga brought 400 Tuareg fighters in for integration with Mali’s armed forces in 2009. He has already deserted twice to join the Tuareg rebels in the north. Al-Qaeda has tried to ingratiate itself with the disaffected Tuareg of northern Mali but has had only marginal success. Some former rebels have even offered to form Tuareg counterterrorist units to expel the mostly Arab al-Qaeda group from the region.
Wider than Mali - impact of Spanish hostage release
Thanks to SWJ Blog a NYT story on the release of two Spanish hostages held for nine months:http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/24/wo...html?ref=world
The last two paragraphs refer to Mali:
Quote:
The release of the two Spanish hostages, meanwhile, followed an agreement by Mauritania to extradite to Mali a man convicted by a Mauritanian court in July for his role in the kidnapping of the Spaniards. The Malian citizen, known as Omar the Saharan, was allegedly the mastermind of the abduction and had received a 12-year prison sentence.
Mr. Zapatero thanked Spanish diplomatic and secret services for helping secure the release. But he provided no further insight on Monday on the link between the Malian extradition and the release of the hostages.
It started in Niger and ended in Mali...
Quote:
France says Niger Frenchmen 'killed in cold blood'
The two men, both 25, were abducted by four gunmen from a restaurant in the capital Niamey on Friday night.
Mr Fillon has suggested they were murdered as the attempted rescue took place the following day.
"The hostage-takers, seeing they were pursued, killed the hostages in cold blood, according to the first elements in my possession," he said.
But a senior Niger military official told Reuters news agency that the bodies were found away from the scene of the clash, implying that they were probably "executed" before the rescue mission.
Relatives have reportedly asked to see the bodies.
French anti-terror police have already arrived in Niger to investigate the deaths.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12150652
It is the second time that AQMI members choose to assassinate their hostages (at least French ones) rather than turning them.
Hopefully, the perpetrators have been severely damaged to quote a French military source.
Organized Crime and Terrorism in the Sahel
SWP, 1 Jan 11: Organized Crime and Terrorism in the Sahel: Drivers, Actors, Options
Quote:
The dimensions of organized criminal activity in the Sahel region have fundamentally changed in recent years. As profits from cocaine smuggling and abductions of foreign nationals increase substantially, criminal networks are expanding their influence, eroding both the rule of law and existing social structures. The
growing presence of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) should equally be seen in the context of the developing criminal networks. Attempts to counter this trend by boosting the capacities of regional states in the security sector have failed to address the real problems. The EU and Germany should encourage greater regional cooperation. Key states are Algeria, which claims regional leadership, and
Mali, which has yet to begin tackling organized crime.....
The genesis of terrorism in the Sahara: Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
An interesting analysis of AQIM and how it has made itself at home in the barren parts of the Sahel, in Niger and Mali:http://www.opendemocracy.net/opensec...utm_campaign=0
As AQIM activities appear to revolve around kidnapping the last sentence is telling:
Quote:
The criminalisation of the Sahel’s political economy might cause more enduring damage than the Jihad.
West Africa's 'cocaine coast'
An IISS Strategic Comment:
Quote:
Could West Africa follow Mexico's path into drugs and gang-fuelled violence? The question sounds alarmist, but has concerned international law-enforcement agencies in recent years, as countries such as Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ghana, Benin and Nigeria have emerged as major transhipment points for the global trade in cocaine and heroin. With the business increasingly a destabilising force in West Africa, G8 ministers meeting in Deauville next week will discuss a new initiative to tackle it.
Link:http://www.iiss.org/publications/str...cocaine-coast/
An indication of the scale of the cocaine trade comes from:
Quote:
Burkina Faso's customs agency destroys more than 100 tonnes of cocaine every year, but this is believed to represent only a small fraction of the drugs circulating the country.
Burkina Faso is the third least developed countries in the world:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burkina_Faso
What I can tell you (not very much).
I’ve avoided participating in this forum after a number of my previous postings involved a high posturing to information exchange ratio but since this involves Burkina I’ll bite. I may well end up regretting it, but here goes.
How I know: My better half likely knows more about Burkina Faso than any American citizen who does not hold a security clearance. I spent five weeks with her there last summer, mostly in Bobo with a few days immediately after arrival and prior to departure in Ouaga. I also read a lot.
In my short time there I observed nothing that looked like evidence of any domestic drug trade. On the one hand, why should I given my horrible French and the briefness of my visit. On the other hand, I have some knowledge of how drug dealing works at the street level (if anyone is dying to know how I came about that knowledge PM me) and I didn’t see any signs of it. Mind you, this is almost all in Bobo. I did see some prostitutes during my few days in Ouaga so the crime situation there is almost certainly different.
But as the linked article points out, you have to go through Burkina if you want to get anything that came off a ship in Ghana to Mali without a (more) circuitous route so a traffic in cocaine is plausible. I was in on a couple of conversations with Burkinabé regarding the mechanics of stealing, shipping, and fencing stolen scooters. Can’t recall the particulars, and all it proves is that there are criminal networks in the region, not that they are moving drugs and/or affiliated to international terror networks. But it does go to plausibility.
I don’t know more than the average man in the street about al-Qaeda—actually, and rather distressingly given al-Qaeda’s prominence in American political discourse, I know far more than the average man in the street about al-Qaeda, I just know very little indeed—nor do I know much about how intelligence work is done, but I have to wonder if any supposed chatter about al-Qaeda in the Sahel isn’t from time to time put into circulation by private firms looking to hire out to the U.S. Government rather than from federal employees.* Burkina Faso does have a tiny military, but outside of Ouaga it is the kind of place where everyone knows everyone else and a non-West African African would stick out, not to mention someone from anywhere else. Which is to say that even a black Yemeni can’t expect to blend in there.† Anecdotally, there does seem to be some surveillance for international terror types. I spent a few hours of one afternoon in successive army and gendarme custody after trespassing onto a military base (but really, when there are no fences or signs how are foreigners supposed to know? as the gendarme pointed out to the sergeant who hauled me to the gendarmerie, right before adding, “Like I say every time you bring another one down here.”). After the incident one of my Burkinabé friends said words to the effect of “You never had anything to worry about. Now, if you had been an Arab…” While reading up prior to my visit I found a couple of blurbs about an international military training in Ouaga a couple of months prior to my arrival which I would assume implies a continued U.S. engagement with Burkinabé security forces at some level.
All of the above should be viewed in light of the face that I was in Burkina Faso prior to the winter and spring military and political changes in fortune in Côte d'Ivoire and the recent unrest in Burkina itself.
*I’m not implying any nasty corporate intrigue. But someone looking to pick up a federal contract might from time to time give a talk or interview suggesting this or that with the knowledge that it is going to be picked up in some form by a journalist on a deadline.
†I am not saying there (are or) are not real concerns regarding an al-Qaeda presence in Burkina Faso. I mean, if I were in a position to know that why would I be discussing it on this forum? I’m just saying that any suggestions regarding terror networks in Burkina needs to be viewed in light of certain constraints.
Mauritania 'destroys al-Qaeda camp' in Mali
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/af...224429787.html
Quote:
The Mauritanian army has launched an attack on an al-Qaeda training camp in neighbouring Mali and "completely destroyed" it, a Mauritanian security source said.
Friday's assault in the forest region of Wagadou in western Mali involved air strikes, the unnamed source told the AFP news agency, adding that the "terrorists" struck back with "heavy arms".
Subsequent reporting states 15 terrorists dead and along with two Mauitanian soldiers.
This is how the war on terror should be fought, we don't need to send U.S. Army Divisions to occupy nations to fight terrorists.
Mali kidnapping: One dead and three seized in Timbuktu
Quote:
An armed gang of kidnappers has abducted three tourists and killed a fourth in the city of Timbuktu in northern Mali, security sources said....
On Thursday, two French geologists were kidnapped by an armed gang in the eastern village of Hombori.
Links:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15895908 and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15877709
Unclear what the motives are, notably if an act of terrorism and some distance between the two places.
Algerian troops 'in Mali to combat Qaeda groups'
Given that other, non-African nations have taken to wandering around the Sahel this is the first report I've seen on Algeria troops being in Mali:
Quote:
Algerian troops have crossed into Mali to help government forces combat groups affiliated to Al-Qaeda, officials and witnesses told AFP Tuesday.
"Algerian troops are currently stationed in northern Mali to assist the Malian army in the fight against terrorism," a high-ranking military official said. e would not divulge the number of Algerian troops now based in Mali nor the expected length of their stay.
"We know there is a team of instructors of at least 15, including officers," a diplomatic source said, also on condition of anonymity.
Link:http://news.yahoo.com/algerian-troop...eSBXb3JsZFNGIE