Algeria helps Mali create development projects to counter terrorism

2009-07-30

Algeria is stepping up co-operation with Mali on development projects to prevent Al-Qaeda terrorists from making inroads there.

By Nazim Fethi for Magharebia in Algiers – 30/07/09

[Kambou Sia/AFP/Getty Images] Malian authorities are welcoming Algerian military assistance and cooperation on development projects.

Algeria has pledged to help Mali boost security and develop its northern governorates of Gao, Timbuktu, and Kidal through projects that include digging wells and vocational training centres, according to Algerian Interior Ministry officials.

"The projects are part of a vision aimed at bringing about development in these regions in order to contribute to the restoration of peace and boost stability," said ministry official Mohand Akli Akreche at a meeting of the bilateral Algerian-Malian border committee on Monday (July 27th) in Bamako.

Mali's northern regions are populated mainly by nomadic Tuareg tribes that fought against the Malian government, until Algiers brokered a truce in 2008. The latest projects come alongside military co-operation and aim at preventing the exploitation of the regions' inhabitants by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), whose followers on June 3rd claimed credit for slaying British hostage Edwin Dyer.

The projects include the construction of three vocational training and support centres, the installation of three wells in each governorate, the building of two healthcare centres, and the refurbishment of a third.

Meeting participant Amadou Beli Soussouko, a technical advisor to the Malian government, congratulated Algeria on its "commitment", and called the projects an "example of South-South cooperation".

"Algeria's contribution forms part of efforts to bring about lasting stability in this part of Mali that has just come out of a painful conflict," added Soussouko.

The latest projects build on a tradition of bilateral cooperation under which Algeria took in Malian refugees fleeing drought and the Tuareg-government conflict. The huge Trans-Sahara Highway that will link Algeria with Nigeria will pass through Mali, which is also slated to benefit from the Lagos-Algiers gas pipeline and the fibre-optic cable that will link South Africa with Algeria.

But it is in the domain of counterterrorism that the need for cooperation is felt to be particularly pressing, especially since terrorist groups have begun using the countries of the Sahel, and Mali in particular, as a base and a corridor for the arms trafficking.

Dyer's killing has spurred a swift response from Bamako. By means of several agreements, particularly with Algeria, especially in the realm of military affairs, Malian authorities are positioning themselves for a "merciless battle against Islamist fighters", according to one Interior Ministry official who wished to remain anonymous.

The intelligence and security departments of several countries are coordinating their fight against terrorist networks affiliated with Al-Qaeda, which the official said was "plundering the whole of the Sahel, in Mali, Niger, Mauritania and even Chad".

In this struggle, more Algerian-Malian co-operation is "indispensable", according to one former Algerian diplomat who requested anonymity.

"If Mali doesn't get help in its fight against Al-Qaeda, it will not succeed on its own, especially since it had great difficulty in quelling the Tuareg rebellion in the north," said the diplomat. "It's therefore necessary to help restore peace in the north by helping the Tuareg tribes improve their living standards and normalise their relations with Bamako."

"It's also necessary to prevent terrorist groups from gaining a foothold in this country or transporting their weapons through it [and] put an end to kidnappings and stop Mali negotiating on ransoms with kidnappers, since these ransoms can be used to finance terrorism," he added.

The former diplomat said Algeria, though the nation most heavily involved in these initiatives, was not going it alone. "Other countries within the region and Western countries led by the United States are also contributing to this operation," he said.