Mali Islamists planting mines around Gao

According to a number of sources, Islamist fighters in northern Mali have planted anti-personnel mines around the town of Gao, which they seized last week. The move is designed to stop a potential attack by Tuareg rebels. The two groups have reportedly fallen out.

In April, following a coup Tuareg rebels and Islamist groups fought together in order to take over northern Mali. This seems to be no longer the case.

In view of the situation, France has said that it is determined to stop "international terror bases" there. France's Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said he wanted to prevent such groups as al-Qa'ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) threatening the peace and security of the whole region.

Ayrault's comments follow desecration by al-Qa'ida militants from Ansar Dine of ancient Muslim shrines in the northern city of Timbuktu. Those responsible said the shrines contravened their interpretation of strict Islamic law.

The new chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Fatou Bensouda dubbed the destruction a "war crime".

According to Gao residents, fighters from another Islamist militant group, Mujao, have instilled an atmosphere of terror by planting mines around the town, east of Timbaktu. There have reportedly been warnings issued by the militants for people to remain within the town and desist from going outside the main roads.

It is estimated that more than 300, 000 people have fled northern Mali since the rebels took over.

Sources: BBC News, Bloomberg, Reuters

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

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

EU's counterterrorism co-ordinator Gilles de Kerchove has warned that Al-Qa'ida's North African branch is extending across Africa, and said that local governments require greater support in fighting it.

During a conference about security across the vast Sahel region, Saharan countries pledged to continue working together in the fight against terrorism.

Algeria's state news agency APS, quoted de Kerchove as saying that Algeria was well equipped to fight against Al-Qa'ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) but added that “other countries of the region, Mali, Niger, Mauritania, need help." He also warned that AQIM is working together with many terrorist organisation across Africa in order to extend its reach.

De Kerchove noted: "This is something that the intelligence services are following very closely. There is still nothing structural. There are efforts at contacts, and small transfers of money…It seems that some members of Boko Haram (in Nigeria) and al-Shabaab (in Somalia) were trained by AQIM."

Niger's Foreign Minister Mohamed Bazoum, however, has said that so far the collaborative efforts of the four-country joint military body based in the Algerian town of Tamanrasset have been unsuccessful. Speaking to Liberte, in reference to the Committee of Joint Chiefs of the four countries - Algeria, Niger, Mali and Mauritania, founded in 2010, Bazoum said: "So far, we have not seen it execute a single concrete operation. We would like CEMOC to carry out concrete actions."

Speaking at the closing of the even, Algeria's Minister for North African affairs Abdelkader Messahel noted: "The Algiers conference lets the countries of the region show their partners abroad that they possess a true strategy and unified vision for their struggle against terrorism, organized crime and poverty."

AQIM comprises largely of the armed groups who fought the Algerian government in the 1990s, after elections were cancelled in 1991 to stave off a victory for an Islamist political party. The group declared allegiance to Al-Qa'ida in 2006 and embarked on a renewed campaign of bombings and kidnappings across the Sahara.

On 1st September, the group announced that it had killed 29 members of Algeria's security forces between July and August, including 18 in twin suicide bombings of the Algerian military academy at Cherchell on 26th August. It is thought that it subsidises its terror campaigns with money obtained through ransoms from kidnappings and smuggling of guns and drugs through the Sahara.

Although Algeria is keen to show off its efforts to counteract AQIM's activities many remain unconvinced. An Algerian journalist with a background in security issues, Anis Rahmani, called on the government to find a radical solution in order to curtail AQIM's movements. Speaking at the conference, he said: “Talking about the experience of Algeria in the fight against terrorism does not mean that this country controls it.”

Sources: Ennahar Online, Fox News, Voice of America

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

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