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Mauritania arrests Mali terrorists
 [MAGHAREBIA] Five armed jihadists were just tossed in the clinkDrop the rod and step away witcher hands up! while attempting to enter Mauritania from northern Mali. "Mauritania has made significant efforts to secure its borders to make its territory safer and safeguard the country's stability," Foreign Minister Hamadi Ould Hamadi said Sunday (March 17th) at a presser announcing the arrests. Other members of "armed Islamist groups active in northern Mali" had also been arrested "while posing as refugees", the minister said. The United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) understood that Mauritania had made these arrests "to safeguard its security and that of its borders", the minister noted. "The measures taken by Mauritania to strictly control its borders are the best assistance it can give to its neighbour Mali," Ould Hamadi added. The war in Mali has "put Mauritania on the front line", terrorism expert Sheikh Tourad Ould Eli said. The total number of refugees from Mal has neared 150,000, Ould Eli noted. In addition to the camp at M'Bera in south-eastern Mauritania, there are now plans to set up a second camp in Aghor, a site which accommodated Malian refugees during the 1990s, he said. "Abou El Hammam, the new leader of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), made serious threats at the beginning of the conflict, saying that Islamist fighters would target all states that participated in the war, from however far away," Ould Eli said. The French foreign ministry last month voiced similar concerns over the danger to Mauritania: "The ongoing events in Mali... are exposing Mauritanian territory to a high risk of infiltration by terrorist elements." In the face of this threat, the Mauritanian government, with assistance from its partners, has taken measures to make its territory more secure. The EU-funded West Sahel Project was launched January 22nd as part of efforts to secure Mauritania's more than 5,000 kilometres of land borders, including the 2,200 with Mali. Counter-terrorism efforts by President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz have also been effective, academic Mohamed Ould Brahim said. "His policy of covering national territory and the significant resources made available to the army have brought swift result," he said. "The Mauritanian army has achieved several victories against AQIM and has succeeded in thwarting the terrorist organization's plans to carry out attacks," Ould Brahim added. Terrorism expert Ould Eli also hailed the government's security strategy. "If the president had not opted for a strategy of pre-emptive strikes on AQIM terrorist bases in Mali, Mauritania would have suffered the same fate as Mali," Ould Eli said. Most of the regions along the shared border with Mali have also been declared "closed military zones" by Mauritania. Posted by: Fred 2013-03-21 |
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