Nigeria: Chad concerned about Boko Haram threat

Chad's President Idriss Deby has called for a creation of a regional task force to tackle the Islamist militant group Boko Haram. The group works manly in northern Nigeria, but Deby said its activities are raising concerns about its threat to its neighbours around Lake Chad.

Chad's leader noted: “Our basin is exposed to insecurity because of the permanent threat posed by Boko Haram."

Nigeria has been struggling to curtail Boko Haram activities for months. The group wants to overthrow the government and impose Islamic law across the country.

On Monday 30 April, a suicide attack on a police station in Taraba state, which borders Cameroon, killed at least 11 people. No-one has claimed responsibility for the bombing, but Boko Haram has carried out numerous similar attacks across northern Nigeria, targeting government offices, churches, mosques and local amenities.

Speaking about Boko Haram activities, Deby said: “I am demanding the creation of a joint deterrence force. We have to make this decision here today," President Deby told a meeting of the Lake Chad Basin Commission, which includes Chad, Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria and the Central African Republic…"If we don't eradicate them, we won't be capable of saving our Lake Chad."

Some experts believe the group is making connections with the al-Qa'ida in the Islamic Maghreb, which has mainly been active in the Sahara region.

It is estimated that since Boko Haram first came to prominence in 2009 it has claimed more than 1,000 lives, both Muslim and Christian. Hundreds of its own followers were killed when they attacked a police stations in Maiduguri, northern Nigeria. Its founder, Mohammed Yusuf, was arrested but died in police custody.

Sources: BBC News, Reuters, AFP

For more news and expert analysis about Nigeria, please see Nigeria Focus and Nigeria Politics & Security.

Algerian troops in Mali

The linkage of the alleged Aguelhok executions to Al-Qa'ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and the DRS raises two significant questions:

What was the Algerian army doing in Aguelhok?
Was the West complicit?
Troops on the move

Algerian armed forces crossed into Mali on 20 December. While the Algerian government eventually admitted that 15 military instructors had been sent to Mali, local observers reported an Algerian army convoy of five army trucks with trailers and 24 heavily armed 4x4s heading south on the Bordj Mokhtar–Tessalit– Aguelhok road. The number of troops was not given but can be assumed at around 200.

The same sources confirmed Algerian troops were garrisoned at the army bases in both Tessalit and Aguelhok. In addition, an army transport was seen flying into Kidal. It contained an unspecified number of Algerian army officers and was reportedly heavily armed. What were these troops doing in Aguelhok and had they been withdrawn to Algeria by the time of the alleged executions? The official reason given by Algeria for its troop presence was to help Mali combat AQIM. That was untrue, however, as no attacks have been launched at any time against AQIM in Mali by either Malian or Algerian forces.

All the signs are that the Algerian army wasn't here to protect AQIM from any assault on it by the MNLA, which has threatened to rid Mali of AQIM. As the MNLA has stated, AQIM is a cover for the billion-dollar cocaine trafficking industry, which is controlled by elements of the political-military elites and their security services in both Mali and Algeria. While the MNLA's secessionist demands may be a threat to Mali's sovereignty, the most serious threat is to the continued presence of AQIM in Mali and the lucrative state-run cocaine business. Indeed, if Mali were not such a close client state of Washington, it is likely that it would already have been labelled a narco-state.

Western complicity?

The second question concerns the matter of complicity. The line of reasoning is as follows. If Abdelhamid Abou Zaïd and AQIM were involved in executions at Aguelhok, the DRS is implicated and its allies and backers, namely the United States and the United Kingdom, may also be deemed complicit. Both US and UK intelligence services are aware of the DRSled AQIM training camp in the Tassili-n-Ajjer. Thus, if Malian soldiers were executed at Aguelhok by AQIM, the people who undertook the executions were under or closely associated with Abou Zaïd's command and almost certainly trained in such methods at the DRS-managed AQIM training camp. If an international enquiry were to establish such a chain, then how far could Western allies of the DRS be held accountable? That question makes a full investigation of what took place at Aguelhok unlikely.

For more news and expert analysis about the Sahara region, please see Sahara Focus.

© 2012 Menas Associates

Algeria: AQIM denies killing businessman

Al-Qa'ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has denied responsibility for kidnapping and subsequently killing an Algerian businessman. The group has issued a statement accusing the Algerian government of organising the crime.

Algerian media reported that a group of suspected AQIM insurgents abducted local businessman Hand Slimana on Sunday [14th November], and shot him dead as he tried to escape.

Shortly after news of the killing, 2,500 people took to the streets, in the remote Algerian town of Freha, demanding that Algerian security forces do more to protect them from al-Qa'ida militants.

The AQIM offered condolences to the businessman's family in a statement posted on a website used by the group, and said it had no connection to the kidnapping or the killing of Slimana, further accusing the government of perpetrating the crime.

"We confirm that the first and last enemy of our tribal enemies is the criminal Algerian regime and not the jihadists. It is very likely the apostates through their intelligence system had planned this operation indirectly as part of an ongoing devilish plan to recruit our Muslim brothers in the tribal region against their brothers the Mujahedeen," said AQIM in the statement.

Source: Reuters

For more news and expert analysis about Algeria please see Algeria Focus and Algeria Politics & Security.