Mali mainly, 2012 coup, drugs & more

[Commando Spirit]

(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!

[davidbfpo]

Being a former French colony and until recently in an obscure part of West Africa / Sahel Mali has an amazingly low profile. Try the standard newsites like the BBC or the CIA and others for a country profile.

Mali has recently featured in some UK-funded counter-radicalisation work, with a conference for clerics in Bamako; which appeared in The Daily Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...l-leaders.html

and within the last few weeks a crashed aircraft loaded with cocaine. AQIM is rumoured to have a presence in the north and linked to kidnapping of foriegners. Just put Mali in Google News and its all there.

There is a specialist website, partly in French IIRC: http://www.thecroissant.com/index.html (behind a paywall alas)

The US Africa Command has had a training mission there and exercises.

Not sure how strong the French connection is now, so have a look for Frech experts?

[Uboat509]

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!

The French are still there, in fact one of them was recently kidnapped in Western Mali.

Security issues abound in Sub Saharen Africa and Mali is no exception. If you are looking for searches, look into Mali and the Tuaregs. There is a great deal to be found on that subject. Also search for Mali and AQIM.

[Jedburgh]

....Security issues abound in Sub Saharen Africa and Mali is no exception. If you are looking for searches, look into Mali and the Tuaregs. There is a great deal to be found on that subject. Also search for Mali and AQIM.

The Tuareg rebels in the north are led by Ibrahim Ag Bahanga and grouped under the Alliance Touareg Nord-Mali pour le Changement (ATNMC).

When looking into security and conflict, don't restrict yourself to Mali. Many issues are regionally linked throughout the Sahel. Look into crime, smuggling and terrorism, separately and together.

[M-A Lagrange]

Commando spirit

As I’m French, I may enter in the discussion… But Mali is not the part of Africa I am the most familiar with.

Good sources to start with and be familiar with what is going on there is to look at
www.rfi.fr
www.afrik.com/mali
www.Allafrica.com (especially the French version).

If you read French, then go to Karthala (http://www.karthala.com/index.php) and Harmathan (http://www.harmattan.fr/index.asp).
It is the two main French editors for development, history, security research books.
You may find some stuff in English in their catalogue (but I doubt of it).

In English:
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/qui...li&searchtype=
You will find a lot of publications on Mali. Mostly development oriented but will help you to understand the economic and sociological issues there, often linked with security/political issues. In Africa, I would say that economy and politic/security are bound and melted.

I do not know how much this will help as it’s not Mali focussed only. But as Jedburgh said, most of the issues are regional. I can orient you to two main French think tanks:

IFRI, Subsaharian African issues (English version)
http://www.ifri.org/?page=detail_research_center&id=1

IRIS, African issues (English version)
http://www.iris-france.org/en/aires-...he/afrique.php

If you will be assigned in Mali, basically you have to speak French. Just like I, I have to speak English to work in East and Southern Africa. Just don’t assume that Malians will speak English.
If you need more specific oriented docs in French mostly, just contact me, I may help.

[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).

[davidbfpo]

From the BBC:

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

[fnord]

Moderator's Note: A lengthy article looking at the recent operation and originally posted on an un-related thread and moved here.

The french are active in the Sohel...

http://themoornextdoor.wordpress.com...ian-aqim-raid/

[davidbfpo]

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:

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.

[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.

[Bill Moore]

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/af...224429787.html

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.

[Rex Brynen]

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.

Since Mauritania doesn't have any combat aircraft, I wonder who did the airstrikes...

[Bill Moore]

I suspect the French or the U.S., both have been active in the region.

Obviously plenty of NATO aircraft available over Libya that could have been re-missioned

[davidbfpo]

Within a longer article on the DEA and CT:

Liberia's narcotics- and law-enforcement-assistance package from the State Department has jumped from $800,000 in 2007 to a requested $17 million for 2011, a more than 2,000% increase.

Link:http://www.time.com/time/world/artic...7220-2,00.html

[davidbfpo]

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.