Mali mainly, 2012 coup, drugs & more

[davidbfpo]

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:

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.

[davidbfpo]

Not an unexpected allegation:

The Spanish government paid al-Qaeda terrorists £5.6 million to free two Spanish aid workers in North Africa after a nine-month kidnapping ordeal, according to reports.

Link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...-hostages.html

[davidbfpo]

Caught on FP Blog in a commentary on Wikileaks:

Is it possible to honestly engage these publics on cooperation with U.S. counterterrorism efforts? When I was in Mali in 2007, I was told that President Amadou Toumani Toure had publicly acknowledged the presence of a handful of American forces hunting for al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and that the forces had even been featured, positively, on local television. This was possible because Mali was a democracy, because citizens genuinely feared Islamist extremism, and because the United States is much more popular in West Africa than in the Arab world. It will, of course, be much harder to make the case in places where the United States is feared and loathed.

Link:http://www.foreignpolicy.com/article...olicy?page=0,1

[M-A Lagrange]

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.

[davidbfpo]

Not strictly on Mali, but this thread has covered stories on the drugs and terror links.

A short BBC report on US nationals accused in Liberia:

Seven people, including two Americans, have been charged with conspiring to aid the Afghan Taliban by selling the militant group weapons and moving drugs through West Africa, US officials say.

Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12460236

[davidbfpo]

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:

The criminalisation of the Sahel’s political economy might cause more enduring damage than the Jihad.

[davidbfpo]

The author of the previous article is back:

Yvan Guichaoua, West Africa expert researching non-government armed groups, describes what kind of force Al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb is, what motivates its members and what are the conditions of its success. Smuggling, fast cars, and the economics of ransoms combine with ideology to create a threat.

Podcast - forty minutes - and yet to be listened to:http://www.opendemocracy.net/yvan-gu...4-20%2005%3a30