Iraq: US court order halts US$100 million sale of Kurdish oil

There have been new developments in the tit-for-tat struggle between Baghdad and Erbil over independent oil sales oil sales by the KRG. The Kurds have suffered a fresh blow to their attempts to sell the oil that they have been exporting via Turkey. It has been reported that an US judge, in response to a lawsuit filed by the Baghdad government, has signed an order to seize the US$100 million crude oil cargo from a tanker anchored off the Texan coast.

It was reported at the end of July that the United Kalavrvta, which left the Turkish port of Ceyhan in June, had sailed to the US and was planning to discharge at the Texan port of Galveston. The tanker informed the authorities that it was intending to discharge its cargo at sea into smaller vessels that would then deliver the crude to the port. On 27 July the US Coast Guard in Houston inspected the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker and cleared it for unloading which seemingly opened the way for the delivery to take place.

However, in its filing in the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Iraq asked for an order allowing the cargo to be seized by the US Marshals Service, arguing that independent Kurdish oil sales amounted to “smuggling”. Court filings showed on 29 July that the order had been granted by Judge Nancy Johnson. 

AET Offshore Services, an intermediary hired to unload the tanker, had previously asked in a separate court filing on 28 July if Iraq’s claims were valid. It is still not known who has purchased the crude oil and the court filings took no steps towards remedying this, by refusing to name the end-buyer. Companies have so far proved reticent about purchasing crude exported to Turkey from the Kurdish region because Baghdad has threatened legal action against all buyers of non-approved oil exports.

For more news and expert analysis about Iraq, please see Iraq Focus.

© 2014 Menas Associates

Libya: Kidnapped Maltese oil worker released unharmed

A Maltese oil worker abducted by a Libyan militia on 17 July was released unharmed yesterday. According to a report, 42 year old Martin Galea has already flown back to Malta after eleven days in captivity.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat welcomed the retired armed forces captain on the tarmac at Malta airport and thanked the diplomatic service, the army and the Muslim community in Malta for helping secure his release.

Galea is an employee of Arab Geophysical Exploration Services and was abducted from the suburbs of Tripoli while he was being driven to work.

The Maltese government said that no ransom was paid for Galea's release and that it was too early to say who had abducted him or why. Given the increased spate of kidnappings by criminal gangs, however, the motivations are just as likely to have been financial rather than ideological.

Although he did not elaborate, Galea said the Maltese consul in Tripoli, Marisa Farrugia, had saved his life. A Maltese government official stated "We will fill in the blanks only after the Security Service has spoken to him. So far what we know for a fact is that he has been released and that was our priority.”

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

© 2014 Menas Associates

Mozambique expanding electricity supply to meet the needs of a growing economy

Mozambique´s Energy Minister Salvador Namburete says that his government is implementing plans to expand electricity supply to meet the needs of a growing economy. According to the state-run Radio Mozambique, the minister made the announcement at his Ministry’s Coordinating Council in the Niassa Province’s northern provincial capital of Lichinga.

Namburete stated that demand for electricity in Mozambique grew at an annual rate of 13% between 2011 and 2013 compared to 10% per annum in the previous decade. Demand is particularly high in the northern provinces of Nampula, Cabo Delgado and Niassa, with growth rates of 20% annually, almost double the national average.

While the government’s electrification programme has extended the national grid to 121 of the country’s 128 districts, Mozambicans will have to wait until the end of 2014 for the remaining seven districts to be connected. Until then, however, patience will remain high as significant steps to redress the electricity supply failures have been made in the last decade.

Mozambique is a major regional producer of hydro-electric power, mainly from the 2,075 MW capacity Cahora Bassa dam but, in 2004, only 7% of the country’s population had access to electricity. Over the last decade, however, the government’s electrification programme has raised that figure to just over 40% in 2014.

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

© 2014 Menas Associates

Algeria: Rumours of an army purge

There is both mystery and a lack of information surrounding the reported “retirement” of senior army officers. More than a month ago, it was reported that a list of 74 senior officers had been drawn up by army chief of staff and deputy defence minister, General Ahmed Gaïd Salah, to be considered for retirement by the High Council of Military Function (HCFM). We then heard that the list may have contained several hundred names and that the “Bouteflika camp”, which includes Gaïd Salah, was already in the throes of “removing” senior army officers who were known or suspected of being opposed to Bouteflika’s fourth mandate. We have since been hearing that this “purge” is being disproportionately weighted against the DRS.

According to our sources, it is because this year’s normal 5 July process of army retirements has turned into this sort of purge, that there has been so little public information on what is happening. Although our sources are adamant that such a purge is taking place, we are finding it impossible to get a firm confirmation of how it is being conducted and who has been removed.

It is obviously a sensitive and politically dangerous process and one that can only be accomplished successfully if it is kept as secret as possible. We are hearing, but cannot confirm, that several hundred officers have been fired or are perhaps still in the firing line, with the DRS being most targeted.

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

© 2014 Menas Associates

Nigeria: Rivers State's Governor Rotimi Amaechi faces impeachment threat after Adamawa State debacle

The 14 July impeachment and removal from office of Adamawa State’s governor Murtala Nyako, who is a prominent member of the opposition All Progressives’ Congress (APC), has descended into a debacle as credible reports suggest that he has fled to Europe via Ghana.

Although one of his assistants insists he is not running from the law - in this case the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and a possible case for treason in relation to his statements on Boko Haram, - the EFCC's media and publicity head, Wilson Uwujaren, stated that in order to locate the elusive Nyako the commission is planning to declare him wanted.

These developments have fuelled suspicions that the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) may next target Rivers State’s governor Rotimi Amaechi. The governor, who last year defected to the APC from the PDP, was detained while en route to campaign for Kayode Fayemi in the Ekiti State gubernatorial election in June.

The Rivers State APC chapter has released a statement lauding Amaechi’s qualifications while suggesting that he is among four additional APC governors “pencilled down by the Presidency” for impeachment, along with those from Borno, Edo and Nasarawa States. APC activists proclaim that they will not allow such “evil machinations” to succeed.

Amaechi issued a statement through his chief of staff, Chief Tony Okocha, that any impeachment plot against him would fail because all 25 former PDP Rivers State assembly members defected to the APC and just six remain loyal to the PDP.

In Adamawa State, the State House of Assembly, which stayed loyal to the PDP, was able to obtain the two-thirds majority in favour of for Nyako’s impeachment. A similar challenge against impeachment was issued in Edo State by Governor Adams Oshiomole who is another APC supporter.

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

© 2014 Menas Associates

Algerian anger at Bastille Day celebration particpation

Further illustration of what many people now believe is part of the price Algeria is having to pay for France’s support for President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s fourth mandate surrounded Algeria’s participation in the 14 July Bastille Day celebrations in Paris.

Those not versed in the often-unfathomable complexities of Franco-Algerian relations might have viewed France’s invitation to Algeria to participate in this year’s Bastille Day celebrations as a timely gesture towards improving relations between the two countries.

However, as news leaked out that Bouteflika had accepted the invitation and that three Algerian military officers and the Algerian flag might be present at the Champs-Élysées celebrations, there were expressions of anger from both France’s far right and almost the entire Algerian political spectrum.

At the heart of the anger in Algeria are the established position of almost all political leaders and, above all, the veterans of Algeria’s War of Independence that Algeria would never accept such an invitation until France, the former colonial power, apologies for the crimes it committed in Algeria.

After many days of debate within the local media, with almost total opposition to any participation, Bouteflika’s decision to send an envoy, in the person of Energy Minister Youcef Yousfi, has united, albeit perhaps temporarily, almost all political parties and strands against Bouteflika. Particularly dangerous for the presidential circle, however, is that many of Bouteflika’s supporters have now come out against him. With his popularity already at an all-time low, one can only wonder what threats or promises the Elysée may have made him.

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

© 2014 Menas Associates

Libya: In-fighting between Islamist militias in Derna

Besides the ongoing fighting in Tripoli and Benghazi another flashpoint has emerged in the eastern coastal town of Derna. Unlike the current conflict in Libya’s two largest cities the clashes in Derna are between rival militant Islamist groups rather than between mainstream Islamist and liberals. A major battle has developed between two main groups: the Abu Slim Martyrs Brigade and the Majlis Shura Shabab Al-Islam fi Derna (the Shura Council of the Youth of Islam in Derna) and its allies.

This battle is mainly one for control over the town but there are also distinct differences of ideological approach. The Abu Slim Martyrs Brigade was formed during the revolution and comprises mainly former members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG). Its cadres were formed during the era when national militant movements emerged out of the Afghanistan war of the 1970s and returned home to challenge authoritarian regimes.

The Majlis Shura Shabab Al-Islam fi Derna is completely different. Formed very recently, its members are generally young and aspire to more transnational jihadist ideologies and movements. The group reportedly includes a number of young Libyans who returned from fighting in Syria, Mali and Algeria.

These militant groups have become increasingly embroiled in a tit-for-tat battle of killings and revenge killings that have seen some key commanders on both sides assassinated.

Meanwhile some of the groups that are affiliated with the Majlis Shura Shabab Al-Islam fi Derna are now declaring their allegiance to ISIS forces in Iraq and Syria. This includes the recently emerged Al-Bata’a Brigade and the Abu Mahjan Al-Ta’ifi Brigade, whose emir declared his support for Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, the head of ISIS, after he declared a caliphate in Iraq and Syria. As a symbol of this support a group of 50 mujahedeen, including fighters, doctors and oil engineers, was sent to Iraq to support the cause. The 50 also included a number of jihadists who are willing to sacrifice themselves as suicide bombers.

That these brigades and groups are allying themselves with ISIS is a worrying development which brings a whole new dimension to the militancy that has implanted itself in Derna and elsewhere in the country.

For further analysis about Libya, please see Libya Focus and Libya Politics & Security.

© 2014 Menas Associates