Weapons continue to flow out of Libya
Since the end of the Libyan revolution weapons have continued to flood out of Libya, looted from depots and sold on the black market. Difficult to track and impossible to quantify, they move in many directions.
Source : https://www.marocafrik.com/english/Weapons-continu...
The continued smuggling routes to northern Mali ,Chad and Niger are well known and still very much open so that regular supplies of weapons still reach the MNLA and Ansar Dine with their Al Qaeda affiliates. Semtex continues to reacg Boko Haram in Nigeria.The route into East Africa via Chad to Al Shebab in Somalia , Sudan and Kenya is also a matter of grave concern as African Union and UN forces battle Al Shebab.
According to a United Nations report released in late January, smuggled weapons include "rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns with antiaircraft visors, automatic rifles, ammunition, grenades, explosives (Semtex), and light antiaircraft artillery (light-caliber bi-tubes) mounted on vehicles."There were calls at the UN meeting to help Libya control the situation and increase border security but these have come to nothing.
In fairness to the UN Security Council but in fairness the challenges are indeed considerable. The UN with the AU will not be able to muster a force to cover the whole of East Africa,Libya and the Sahel.
It really requires two U N mandated armies,one African to deal with the African countries and one Arab force to deal with Arab countries. The disturbing factor about the proposal for tha ECOWAS is that if it would be directed to attack Northern Mali it would pitch African against Arab forces and as was seen during the Libyan revolution this could cause more problems than it might solve.
The Sahel forces CEMOC under Algerian Army command at Tamenrasset perhaps fearing a conflict with their own Tuareg populations have not taken up the challenge for which it wa screated.The possibility of a Maghrebian force including Morocco may be considered. A regional solution is probably the only alternative likely to succeed.
The proposal to utilise "reliable" Tuareg forces to act against terrorists such as Al Qaeda may eventually prove to have some merit. The Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) proposed this in the early stages of the revolt in Northern Mali. Algeria and the Sahel Armed forcesare another option if they are willing to take action.
Kalashnikovs and other weapons have been found in Tunisia and Al Qaeda operatives arrested. The vast desert areas and porous borders including the Libyan Algeria border offer boundless opportunities for smugglers.
With potential local conflicts in Libya, Egypt and Tunisia this flow of arms and explosives threatens the region.
The Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) is unable to control the militias and warring tribal factions who are the prime movers in the weapons trade. As realtions with the West become more difficult in Egypt , With a series of attacks including an RPG attack on a British Embassy convoy a two days ago in Benghazi and a series of other attacks, a a picture is emerging of worsening relations with western powers.
The stand off in Zintan between the ICC and the Zintan Brigade is not so different from the American- Egyptian confrontation over the NGO's.
The spectre of huge parts of an entire region dissolving into anarchy is real and effective action is overdue to try to counteract the situation if the West still has the ability or the will to do so.
According to a United Nations report released in late January, smuggled weapons include "rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns with antiaircraft visors, automatic rifles, ammunition, grenades, explosives (Semtex), and light antiaircraft artillery (light-caliber bi-tubes) mounted on vehicles."There were calls at the UN meeting to help Libya control the situation and increase border security but these have come to nothing.
In fairness to the UN Security Council but in fairness the challenges are indeed considerable. The UN with the AU will not be able to muster a force to cover the whole of East Africa,Libya and the Sahel.
It really requires two U N mandated armies,one African to deal with the African countries and one Arab force to deal with Arab countries. The disturbing factor about the proposal for tha ECOWAS is that if it would be directed to attack Northern Mali it would pitch African against Arab forces and as was seen during the Libyan revolution this could cause more problems than it might solve.
The Sahel forces CEMOC under Algerian Army command at Tamenrasset perhaps fearing a conflict with their own Tuareg populations have not taken up the challenge for which it wa screated.The possibility of a Maghrebian force including Morocco may be considered. A regional solution is probably the only alternative likely to succeed.
The proposal to utilise "reliable" Tuareg forces to act against terrorists such as Al Qaeda may eventually prove to have some merit. The Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) proposed this in the early stages of the revolt in Northern Mali. Algeria and the Sahel Armed forcesare another option if they are willing to take action.
Kalashnikovs and other weapons have been found in Tunisia and Al Qaeda operatives arrested. The vast desert areas and porous borders including the Libyan Algeria border offer boundless opportunities for smugglers.
With potential local conflicts in Libya, Egypt and Tunisia this flow of arms and explosives threatens the region.
The Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) is unable to control the militias and warring tribal factions who are the prime movers in the weapons trade. As realtions with the West become more difficult in Egypt , With a series of attacks including an RPG attack on a British Embassy convoy a two days ago in Benghazi and a series of other attacks, a a picture is emerging of worsening relations with western powers.
The stand off in Zintan between the ICC and the Zintan Brigade is not so different from the American- Egyptian confrontation over the NGO's.
The spectre of huge parts of an entire region dissolving into anarchy is real and effective action is overdue to try to counteract the situation if the West still has the ability or the will to do so.
Source : https://www.marocafrik.com/english/Weapons-continu...