Fortress Algeria - Huffington Post
On the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suggested that the group responsible for the attack on the U.S. consulate mission in Benghazi, Libya may be linked to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), an al Qaeda affiliate that controls a large part of northern Mali.
Source : https://www.marocafrik.com/english/Fortress-Algeri...
If true, then there is an al Qaeda haven in northern Mali fueling jihadi terrorism in Libya, and Algeria is squarely in the middle,writes Geoff Porter a US expert on North Africa in the Huffington Post.
He emphasises Algeria's importance to the US and the situation in Mali.It is Africa's largest country in terms of landmass and the tenth largest country in the world. Algeria's border with Mali in the Sahara is 800 miles long, henotes. It is financially stable with $200 billion in foreign exhange reserves and only $4 billion in external debt.Its economy is mainly basedon hydrocarbons exports and it has bought a hugeamount of armaments. Its army is battlehardened and it has successfully reduced terrorism in its territory.Algeria has also avoided the turmoil ofthe Arab Spring. All these facts would appear to make Algeria an ideal regional ally for the US, Mr Porter writes.
However,he concludes that the U.S. is unlikely to be able to enlist Algeria's support in eradicating AQIM from northern Mali and in combating jihadi groups in Libya. The reasons for Algeria's hesitancy range from ideological to the pragmatic.
Algeria maintains a policy of non interference in other countries affairs following 132 years of colonial rule by the French and a war of independence which cost a million Algerian lives. Algeria invoked this principle when Nato intervened in Libya, voicing its opposition, Mr Porter points out. Algeria knew that the result of the intervention would be the flood of arms and disorder spreading to Mali which ensued and Algeria blames the USA and Nato for unleashing this instability in the region.
Algeria does not see it as its responsibility to clear up a mess that was not of its making, Mr Porter observes.Its refusal to confront the situation has to do with the prolonged civil war after 1992,which is still seeing AQIM fighters and leaders being killed or captured on a weekly basis.Whilst it may be sympathetic to the loss of four American diplomats in the Benghazi, It has to considerits own 4 diplomats who were kidnapped from their consulate in Gao.
Algeria, Mr Porter concludes became insular because of French colonial occupation and the 1990's insurgency. It wants to keep bad things from entering its territory and has become independent adopting a fortress like attitude.The U.S. has little leverage to lure Algeria over its borders. The sooner the U.S. recognizes this, the sooner it can concentrate on more viable solutions to the challenges in Libya and the Sahara-Sahel that rely on the governments in Bamako, Niamey, Nouakchott and Tripoli, rather than Algiers,Mr Porter ends.
APS quotes the first part of Mr Porter's article, saying that the US regards Algeria "as an important regional ally quoting him writing that Algeria "has become an important component of U.S foreign policy" in the region.It does not however quote his final conclusion that the US should rely on other governments than Algeria to find aviable solution to the crisis in the Sahel.
He emphasises Algeria's importance to the US and the situation in Mali.It is Africa's largest country in terms of landmass and the tenth largest country in the world. Algeria's border with Mali in the Sahara is 800 miles long, henotes. It is financially stable with $200 billion in foreign exhange reserves and only $4 billion in external debt.Its economy is mainly basedon hydrocarbons exports and it has bought a hugeamount of armaments. Its army is battlehardened and it has successfully reduced terrorism in its territory.Algeria has also avoided the turmoil ofthe Arab Spring. All these facts would appear to make Algeria an ideal regional ally for the US, Mr Porter writes.
However,he concludes that the U.S. is unlikely to be able to enlist Algeria's support in eradicating AQIM from northern Mali and in combating jihadi groups in Libya. The reasons for Algeria's hesitancy range from ideological to the pragmatic.
Algeria maintains a policy of non interference in other countries affairs following 132 years of colonial rule by the French and a war of independence which cost a million Algerian lives. Algeria invoked this principle when Nato intervened in Libya, voicing its opposition, Mr Porter points out. Algeria knew that the result of the intervention would be the flood of arms and disorder spreading to Mali which ensued and Algeria blames the USA and Nato for unleashing this instability in the region.
Algeria does not see it as its responsibility to clear up a mess that was not of its making, Mr Porter observes.Its refusal to confront the situation has to do with the prolonged civil war after 1992,which is still seeing AQIM fighters and leaders being killed or captured on a weekly basis.Whilst it may be sympathetic to the loss of four American diplomats in the Benghazi, It has to considerits own 4 diplomats who were kidnapped from their consulate in Gao.
Algeria, Mr Porter concludes became insular because of French colonial occupation and the 1990's insurgency. It wants to keep bad things from entering its territory and has become independent adopting a fortress like attitude.The U.S. has little leverage to lure Algeria over its borders. The sooner the U.S. recognizes this, the sooner it can concentrate on more viable solutions to the challenges in Libya and the Sahara-Sahel that rely on the governments in Bamako, Niamey, Nouakchott and Tripoli, rather than Algiers,Mr Porter ends.
APS quotes the first part of Mr Porter's article, saying that the US regards Algeria "as an important regional ally quoting him writing that Algeria "has become an important component of U.S foreign policy" in the region.It does not however quote his final conclusion that the US should rely on other governments than Algeria to find aviable solution to the crisis in the Sahel.
Source : https://www.marocafrik.com/english/Fortress-Algeri...