Mali mainly, 2012 coup, drugs & more

[Commando Spirit]

As with other areas on SWJ, your advice is hugely appreciated; many thanks.

CS

[davidbfpo]

I mentioned the crashed jet with cocaine aboard and now this BBC report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8422010.stm

A court in the US has for the first time charged suspected members of al-Qaeda with plotting to traffic cocaine in order to fund terrorism. (later on)..The informant claimed in secretly taped conversations that the FARC were looking for a secure means of smuggling drugs through western and northern Africa on the way to Europe.

The crime-terror nexus so beloved by some analysts. There are US newspaper reports too, on today's SWJ news round up.

[davidbfpo]

Try this article: http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/20...d-in-the-sand/ by a UK reporter who works the region and has his own website: http://simanowitz.ning.com/ (Mali is not the focus, but Western Sahara).

[James Phelan]

I have spoken with a few people who think that the FARC connection is strongest in Guinea-Bissau. I was there over the summer- little to no government control of the hundreds of small islands off the coast and a corrupt military with more officers than enlisted- bad recipe. When the chief of the military in GB, Tagme, was assassinated last spring he was killed by a bomb, more typical of a FARC like operation that what was seen in GB before. A few AQ linked people were arrested there for the murder of French tourists in Mauritania. Overall, I think the AQ connection is pretty weak in West Africa in general- one of those cases where they put up the flag and we throw millions of dollars away. The drug connection is another story however with the decline of the dollar relative to the euro.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L19487497.htm

[davidbfpo]

A commentary:http://www.globalpost.com/print/5526099 and the summary:

If Mali doesn't get its act together and combat terrorism, years of good governance could give way to a hotbed of extremism.

Nothing new, I'd call this another attempt to publicly pressurise the Mali state.

[davidbfpo]

The BBC:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8533195.stm

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

[davidbfpo]

A Spanish woman kidnapped in West Africa last year has been freed, the Spanish government says.

Link:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8559985.stm