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| Africa North |
| Libya: Malian Tuareg, threat on the Sahel |
| 2011-03-29 |
| [Ennahar] Hundreds of Malian Tuareg attracted by money fight in Libya alongside the forces of Muammar Qadaffy, whose latest setback, however, pushed them to return to Mali, but with weapons brought from the front, therefore posing a threat on peace in the Sahel. Gadhafi's regime, facing since mid-February a popular uprising, has especially relied on Malian Tuareg to fight the turbans. In the desert of Mali, a truck passes. A Malian guide, Souleh, suspects the men aboard change vehicles once go to Niger to support Qadaffy. "At one point, the young Tuareg who joined the ranks of Qadaffy earned up to $ 1000 a few days. It paid well," says Ag Abdoulsalam Assalat, president of the Regional Assembly of Kidal (northeast). According to the overlap of the AFP, the Tuareg and other young Mali people who go to Libya leave from the north of their country via the area of Tamasna, then pass through the Aïr and Ténéré in Niger, Mali's neighbor, before arriving in Ghat, a town in southern Libya where they are led to Sabha, another town in the same area. "From Sabha, they are sent to the front," said a security source in Niger. This recruitment is booming for these intermediate Malians, Nigerians and Libyans, according to several sources. A Libyan diplomat based in Bamako who recently defected has been accused by Malian Tuareg to have pocketed "several million dollars" after providing the Tuareg fighters to Libyan troops. Two other intermediate Malians bought in record time, houses and cars, according to the same sources. But "there is danger for everyone. Many people have made weapons of war in Libya to sell to al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)" present in many Sahelian countries, including the north of Mali, said Abdoulsalam Ag Assalat. "These heavy weapons will destabilize the entire Sahel. AQIM will become more the master of the region with the temptations of young Touaregs to integrate its ranks," he warned. The array brought from Libya to AQIM fighters would include surface to air missile SAM 7, and anti-tank rockets RPG7, according to military sources in Mali and Niger. AQIM has carried in recent years kidnappings of Europeans, killing some of them. This information about the Tuareg who sold Libyan arms to AQIM are denied by Ahmed, a young Tuareg met in Gao, more than 1200 km north of Bamako. "We have to stop accusing the Tuareg of all evils", said Ahmed who had recently returned from the Libyan front with a "war trophy" a 4X4 car that wants to sell 6,000,000 CFA (more than 9,100 euros). "I go down to Bamako to sell the car. Others have sold theirs in the north of Mali," he said. But Abdoulsalam Ag Assalat told to expect a massive return of Tuareg to Mali with the latest setback suffered by the Libyan army. "We are worried. Over forty Malian Tuareg fighters alongside the troops of Colonel Qadaffy have disappeared or been killed in the bombings" carried out since March 19 by the international coalition against Libyan military targets, adds Abdoulsam Assalat Ag. Nomadic community of about 1.5 million people, the Tuareg is divided between Niger, Mali, Algeria, Libya and Burkina Faso. Tuareg rebellions have existed in Mali and Niger in the 1990s and early 2000s with resurgence from 2006 to 2009. Tens of thousands of them decamped to Libya to avoid these conflicts. |
| Posted by:Fred |