Kidnappings a ‘message’ from rebels in Sahel

John Thorne-http://www.thenational.ae-01-05-09
Kidnappings a ‘message’ from rebels in Sahel
vendredi 1er mai 2009

RABAT // Last week two senior Canadian diplomats, a German tourist and a Swiss tourist were freed in Mali after months in the clutches of al Qa’eda-linked militants. The story, however, is far from over.

Two other hostages remain in captivity, one threatened with execution. The kidnappings highlight the persistent menace of terrorist networks that have spread from North Africa into the lawless wastes along the southern fringe of the Sahara.

The United States fears the region, a band of dry plains and scrub acacia known as the Sahel, has become a hideout for al Qa’eda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM. Analysts said the shadowy group may be as involved in banditry as in ideologically driven militancy.

“You have AQIM, but also have organised criminal activity such as arms, tobacco and drugs smuggling,” said Wolfram Lacher, North Africa analyst for Control Risks, a security assessment firm based in London. “Various groups and people are involved in that, including some of the security apparatus’s in the region and some rebel groups.”

Robert Fowler, the United Nations’ special envoy to Niger, and his assistant, Louis Guay, were abducted in December by unknown assailants near the capital, Niamey. By February the Canadians were in the hands of AQIM along with four European tourists kidnapped in January near the Niger-Mali border.

AQIM, formerly the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, or GSPC, arose amid civil war in Algeria that killed some 150,000 during the 1990s. The group’s northern wing seeks to erect an Islamic state and continues to stage bomb attacks mainly on government forces east of the capital, Algiers.

“The southern wing has been more involved in criminal activities than in terrorist activities as such,” said Mr Lacher. Small and loosely organised, the Saharan bands may serve chiefly to fund the northern group, he said.

In 2003, GSPC-linked militants kidnapped 32 mainly German tourists in southern Algeria. Some were rescued by Algerian police, others released for a purported ransom of US$6 million (Dh22m) from the German government. One tourist died of heat exhaustion. The kidnappings’ alleged mastermind, an Algerian former paratrooper called Amari Saifi and known as “El Para”, was arrested in Chad and turned over to Algerian authorities.

In Feb 2008, AQIM snatched two Austrian tourists in Tunisia, demanding the release of Islamist prisoners, including El Para. The hostages were freed in Mali in Oct 2008 for a reported $6.4m ransom instead.

The Canadian government and UN have denied paying a ransom for Mr Fowler and Mr Guay. But AQIM said in an internet statement on Sunday that four imprisoned terrorists had been freed by an unidentified government in return for the hostages’ release.

The group has also threatened to kill a British hostage unless the UK releases Abu Qatada, an alleged al Qa’eda chief imprisoned in Britain pending deportation to his native Jordan.

Kidnappings of westerners and occasional shoot-outs with police grab headlines, but are relatively rare, said Mr Lacher, of Control Risks.

“The southern wing hasn’t been able to carry out attacks in the Algerian Sahara because of the security presence there,” he said. “However, the group does pose a latent threat to oil, gas and mining operations in Mauritania, Mali and Niger.”

In Jan 2007, the GSPC alarmed governments by formally pledging allegiance to al Qa’eda, rebranding itself, and announcing its intention to co-ordinate Islamist militants across North Africa. Analysts said the group has helped train and funnel fighters to battlefields in Iraq.

Since 2005, the US has tried to contain the threat through the Trans-Saharan Counterterrorism Initiative, a $500m project that has sent US soldiers to the Sahara to help train and equip local police and armies for counter-terrorism.

Some analysts said the US is overreacting, while others said North African governments may exaggerate the threat to gain western support. A report last month by Menas Associates, a London-based security analysis firm, claimed some Algerian newspapers close to the government publish inflated, contradictory stories of terrorist activity, and that some terrorist bands have been infiltrated and manipulated by Algerian security services.

However, most analysts said while AQIM blurs the lines between terrorism and banditry, its fighters are dangerous. And they may be winning support.

In Mauritania, where the group has allegedly struck several times in recent years, fighters based in neighbouring Mali slip over the border to discuss Islam with local villagers, said Yahya Ould el Bara, a security expert and anthropologist at the University of Nouakchott, in the Mauritanian capital.

Despite the region’s tolerance, AQIM’s stern militants have been winning sympathisers, said Mr el Bara. “They’re friendly with locals, and people have a negative view of the US because images of Iraq and Afghanistan seem to show American soldiers waging war on Islam.”

That sympathy, plus militants’ ability to bribe police, gives them free rein of the Sahel, Mr el Bara said.

The recent kidnappings may be primarily a tactic to free comrades or score ransom money. But they may also carry a message, said Mr el Bara. “They’re saying that in the Sahel, they’re capable of doing whatever they please.”

jthorne@thenational.ae