Sahara the Paradise for Al Qaeda

Prof Dr Colonel (Retired) K Prabhakar Rao

The Sahara in Africa is vast—3,000 miles across, 3.3 million square miles making it as large as the United States. With Africa’s harshest and least populated terrain, and with a nearly total absence of communications, the Sahara mostly defies national government authority. Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Mauritania, Mali, Chad, Niger, Sudan, Morocco and western Sahara are the major nations covered under Sahara desert. These countries have great portions of them occupied by Sahara desert. There are southern countries to above such as Senegal, Nigeria, Barkima Faso, and Central African Republic that are having Muslim populations and come under Sahara belt. African armies of these countries, medieval, relatively small, poorly equipped, ill trained and poorly disciplined have difficulty in monitoring the huge and inhospitable territories they are supposed to control. Such “ungoverned areas” are becoming the “melting pots for the disenfranchised of the world—terrorist breeding grounds,” warned Marine Corps Gen. James L. Jones, the NATO commander who was head of US European Command (EUCOM).

After Sept 11, 2001 attack on WTC in New York, US and its allies went for world wide hunt for the terrorists with great vigor and crushed the power of Taliban and AlQaeda. AlQaeda that was harbored in Afghanistan was shattered, and the leadership escaped into Pakistan and is still being vigorously hunted down. Most of the cadres have been eliminated (1). With grave American and Western threat, Al Qaeda has infiltrated the poor countries of Africa where sizeable Muslim populations exist in the backward and economically poor nations of North Africa that are mostly spread across Sahara. There are some more nations south of these Sahara nations where the AlQaeda concentrates on infiltration of Muslim masses. There is a new front in America’s global war on terrorism, US officials say. Across the broad Sahara—a desolate expanse of sand and rock covering 3.3 million square miles—Al Qaeda and its terrorist affiliates are setting up shop, taking advantage of the lawless and trackless Bad Lands stretch from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. Some believe the arid, impoverished region could succeed Afghanistan as the world’s No. 1 haven for fanatic Islamic militants. Today, the Sahara region is believed to be home for thousands of the 30,000 or so jihadists who passed through Osama bin Laden’s Afghan training camps in the 1990s. A spokesman for US European Command, whose area of operations includes large parts of Africa, said, “There are clear indications that Muslim extremists from the Middle East and Afghanistan have moved into these massive open spaces.” With US deeply involved in Iraq and Afghanistan battling the terrorism, it finds difficult to intervene directly. Nevertheless, US military has to open up its constant battle against entrenchment of AlQaeda in Africa amongst the poor nations and vast un- inhabited and most hostile Sahara deserts from where the jihadi cadres carry out anti west operations. Even Madrid bombings are suspected to have originated from the countries such as Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Chad and Mali that are close to Spain. Infact Spanish peninsula is separated from Morocco by narrow channel at Alexandria through which once Muslims invaded Spain and occupied it in medieval times. This was the passage for spread of Islam into Europe when Islam was invading countries to spread faith by sword. Osama Bin Laden, the criminal and terrorist is very particular about re occupying Spain that is claimed as land belonging to Islam although they were driven out lock stock and barrel by Franks in medieval period.

“We need to drain the swamp,” adds Air Force Gen. Charles F. Wald, deputy commander of US European Command (EUCOM). “The United States learned a lesson in Afghanistan—you don’t let things go.” These facts have elevated Africa’s place in US foreign policy calculations. Once a humanitarian concern only, it now enjoys a strategic place in Washington’s plans. It has a prominent place in the “definition of vital US national interests,” observed at report to former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell by the Africa Policy Advisory Panel. American officials say that no US troops have become directly engaged in the fighting. However, local combat operations have been supported by the United States, which has provided communications, intelligence, and reconnaissance support. The Voice of America reported in March that the US military delivered food, medical supplies, and other assistance to Chad to support government troops battling suspected terrorists linked to al Qaeda (2)

The Sahel, a vast region bordering the Sahara Desert and including the countries of Mali, Niger, Chad and Mauritania, is increasingly referred to by the U.S. military as "the new front in the war on terrorism". There are enough indications, from a security perspective, to justify caution and greater Western involvement. US Military and some other organizations have read the potential threat of violent Islamist activity in the four Sahelian countries covered by the Americans' Pan-Sahel Initiative (PSI). However, the Sahel is not a hotbed of terrorist activity. An ill-conceived and heavy handed approach could boomerang. Serious, balanced, and long-term engagement with the four countries should keep the region peaceful. An effective counter-terrorism policy there needs to address the threat in the broadest terms, with more development than military aid and greater U.S.-European collaboration (3). Although these countries in North west Africa are poor, the Muslim fundamentalism is varied. Mauritania, which calls itself an Islamic republic, harshly suppresses Islamist activities of any kind, while Mali, a star pupil of 1990s neo-liberal democratization, runs the greatest risk of any West African country other than Nigeria of violent Islamist activity. Those who believe poverty breeds religious fanaticism will be disappointed in Niger, the world's second poorest country, whose government has maintained its tradition of tolerant Sufi Islam by holding to an unambiguous line on separation of religion and the state. The Algerian Salafi Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which lost 43 militants in a battle with Chad's army in 2004 after being chased across borders by PSI-trained troops, has been seriously weakened in Algeria and Mali by the combined efforts of Algerian and Sahelian armed forces of course under US guidance and training. No one denies, however, that US forces are on the ground in Saharan nations. Washington has dispatched special operations forces (SOF) teams to train local forces and sometimes patrol with them. The SOF teams also provide basic gear such as radios, GPS receivers, and vehicles.

The international crisis Group in its study recommends following (4):-

1. Establish a healthier balance between military and civilian programs in the Sahel, including by:

(a) opening USAID offices in the capitals of Mauritania, Niger and Chad;

(b) tailoring significant development programs to nomadic populations in northern Mali, with emphasis on roads and livestock infrastructure (wells and regional slaughterhouses); and

(c) promoting tourist infrastructure in such historic places of interest as Timbuktu, and Agadez, helping to diminish smuggling by offering Tuareg populations viable economic alternatives.

2. Continue to provide training and equipment to improve customs and immigration surveillance at all airports in the region, both national and international.

3. Seek cooperative diplomatic and developmental assistance relationships with the Europeans in order to take advantage of their experience in the Sahelian region.

4. Coordinate its own military capacity-building training with NATO's Mediterranean Dialogue and France's RECAMP program, in order to multiply effectiveness and diminish perceptions of an American-only venture

It would be seen that US has to pay special attention to curb AlQaeda activity in African Sahara region that is emerging as the regrouping area for international mischief makers. Many of the African countries are west friendly and have taken up club against terrorism. US should continue to train and assist these countries, their police and armed forces to flush put terrorists and eliminate and annihilate them. Financial aid should be provided to develop these poor countries and help in spreading education. However constant pressure has to be maintained on these nations not to relax in their fight against AlQaeda in their territories. Presence of US military and their training teams for long periods in these countries is foreseen. At present US is not directly involved in fighting the AlQaeda in these African Sahara belt. Patrolling jointly by US and native military can not be avoided till these nations become more confident and self assured. Sahara is emerging as a new battle ground and AlQaeda which is hard pressed and is trying to relocate and regroup itself in these inhospitable desert terrains among backward poor nations of Africa and these plans should be defeated at all costs. Terrorism is the biggest enemy of mankind than poverty among masses. Of late, terrorism apart from finding a strong base among poor is being glorified by the educated fanatic Muslim youth inspired by the crazy Mullahs suffering from the hallucinations of Islamic world order.

Bibliography

1. Prof Dr Colonel (retired) K Prabhakar Rao, Al Qaeda is still strong and active. It is time to go full steam against them, www.faithcommons.org, November 30, 2006, 11:51

2 . Stewart M Powell, Vast, trackless, and ungoverned, Africa’s sprawling desert is now a magnet for terrorists. Swamp of Terror in the Sahara, Air Force Journal on Line, http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:-lxiqAwBprQJ:www.afa.org

/magazine/Nov2004/1104sahara.asp+Terrorism+linked+to+Chad+in+Africa&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4

3. Islamist Terrorism in the Sahel: Fact or Fiction?Africa Report N°92 ,31 March 2005,http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:-5SkoE7gixgJ:www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm%3Fl%3D1%26id%3D3349

+Terrorism+linked+to+Chad+in+Africa&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1

4. Ibid

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